Knowing about your rival is critical. Use spies to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. Better still: Play the spy yourself. In polite social encounters, learn to probe. Ask indirect questions to get people to reveal their weaknesses and intentions. There is no occasion that is not an opportunity for artful spying.

1. Law 14: Pose as a Friend,Work as a Spy
Knowing about your rival is critical. Use
spies to gather valuable information that
will keep you a step ahead. Better still:
Play the spy yourself. In polite social
encounters, learn to probe. Ask indirect
questions to get people to reveal their
weaknesses and intentions. There is no
occasion that is not an opportunity for
artful spying.
Tariq Al-Basha @ albashatariq@outlook.com 1

2. 1. You will gain some valuable information.
2. You will know their comings and goings,
changes in taste, and other such tidbits of
information that will be priceless.
3. You will appear to be all knowing because
you will be one step ahead of your
competition.
4. Your knowledge of your mark can also make
you seem charming, so well can you
anticipate his desires.
5. No one sees the source of your power, and
what they cannot see they cannot fight.
Tariq Al-Basha @ albashatariq@outlook.com 2

3. Tariq Al-Basha @ albashatariq@outlook.com 3
YOU HAVE LITTLE CONTROL
OVER THE PEOPLE WHO ARE
DOING THE WORK.
PERHAPS THEY WILL INEPTLY
EXPOSEYOUR SPYING.
THEY MAY SECRETLY TURN
AGAINSTYOU.

4. 1. 1. Pose as a friend while secretly gathering information.
▪ People will think that you genuinely like them and mistake
your interest as friendship.
2. 2. Learn to possess the ability to suppress your thoughts in
the conversation,
▪ Speak when only necessary.
3. 3. Learn to make others talk endlessly about themselves.
▪ They will inadvertently reveal their intentions and plans.
4. 4. Organize social gathering with people whom you are
interested in knowing.
▪ This is when most people’s guards are down.
Tariq Al-Basha @ albashatariq@outlook.com 4

5. 5. 5. Stir up people’s emotions by contradicting them.
▪ In their emotional state they will reveal all kinds of truths
about themselves, truths you can later use against them.
6. 6. Give them a false confession.
▪ By pretending to bare your heart to another person, you
make them more likely to reveal their own secrets.
▪ This can also be a test to see if you can trust the person
with your secret and reveal their true character, loyalty
and honesty.
▪ This kind of knowledge is often the most valuable to
predict future actions.
Tariq Al-Basha @ albashatariq@outlook.com 5

6. Tariq Al-Basha @ albashatariq@outlook.com 6
People may begin to suspect you are
worming secrets out of them under the
guise of conversation.
Your search for gems of information
cannot be too obvious.
Your probing questions will reveal
more about yourself and your
intentions than about the information
you hope to find about them.

7. ▪ Information is critical to power, but just as you spy on other
people, you must be prepared for them to spy on you.
▪ One of the most potent weapons in the battle for information,
then, is giving out false information.
▪ By feeding people wrong information, then, you gain a
potent advantage. While spying gives you a third eye,
disinformation puts out one of your enemy's eyes.
▪ A Cyclops, he always misses his target.
Tariq Al-Basha @ albashatariq@outlook.com 7