How cheaters sabotage themselves, a story from my childhood:

This is something that happened to me many years ago when I was about ten years old.

The public library had a summer reading contest, you know the kind - you read book, write a mini book-report, and at the end of the summer the kid who has handed in the most reports wins. Kids who read less than the most get prizes based on how many books they read. The current status for the the kids who were participating could be seen by everybody, on a bulletin board with little flags with each child's name on a flag. The librarians were in charge of moving the flags.

I had never won a contest before, and wasn't exactly aiming to win this one, but I wanted to do well, and get a prize that was more than just some poster this time.

I read a few books, and my flag was in the first circle - with the kids who read the fewest books.

I read some more. I thought it would be enough to move my flag to the next circle, but there was my flag - still in the first. Being too shy to ask the librarian, I figured it wasn't quite enough yet, and read some more.

--- You can probably see where this is heading, now. ---

This kept happening, all summer long. Some other kid was pulling a prank on me, moving my flag back to the start, over and over again.

I won that contest.
I never would have if not for the prankster.
I never knew who the prankster was either.

It's something I've been remembering a lot lately, because of Sanders and the DNC.