Wikipedia:Don't stuff beans up your nose

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This page in a nutshell: If you tell people not to do something, your advice may backfire and instead tempt them to do it. In fact, they might have not even thought of doing it until you told them not to do it. See also WP:NEEDTOKNOW for a more in-depth presentation of this maxim.

As an old story goes:

The little boy's mother was going off to the market. She worried about her son, who was always up to some mischief. She sternly admonished him, "Be good. Don't get into trouble. Don't eat all the chocolate. Don't spill all the milk. Don't throw stones at the cow. Don't fall down the well." The boy had done all of these things on previous market days. Hoping to head off new trouble, she added, "And don't stuff beans up your nose!" This was a new idea for the boy, who promptly tried it out.

In our zeal to head off others' unwise actions, we may put forth ideas they have not entertained before. As the popular saying goes, "don't give 'em any ideas".

In other words, don't give potential vandals examples of how to cause disruption. This may will actually tempt them to do it.^{[Note 1]}

Perhaps the boy's mother could have said the following instead:

Keep your nose clean!

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