The Four Robbers
Four Jacks break into a house. One searches the basement, one the ground floor, one the bedrooms, one keeps watch on the roof. The police arrive, the lookout signals, and all four are found together, on top of the deck.
Play it through
Be the spectator and you pick which floor each robber searches — the only choice in the trick, and one that makes no difference at all. Be the magician and you build the packet, which is the only thing here that can go wrong.
Choose a floor for each robber. It makes no difference which, and that is the point — the cards going into the deck were never Jacks. Build the packet backwards to watch the one thing that ruins it.
This is usually the first trick anybody learns, and it is still good. It is a story with a deck of cards as the illustration, which makes it the easiest trick here to perform for children and the hardest to perform badly.
How to perform it
- Before you start, put three indifferent cards on top of the deck. Then the four Jacks on top of those? No — the other way round, and this is the one thing that matters. See below.
- Set it so the top seven cards are: three strangers, then the four Jacks... reversed. Working from the top of the face-down deck: Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack is what you want left at the end, so the three strangers must be the cards you deal off first. Put the four Jacks on top, then the three strangers on top of them.
- Fan the top seven as though showing four. Hold them so the three strangers hide behind the Jacks and only four faces are visible. Show them casually — this is not a display, it is a story prop.
- Square them up and put the packet on top of the deck. You have just placed seven cards while saying four.
- Deal the top three cards into the deck, one per "floor". One into the bottom third, one into the middle, one near the top. Those are the three strangers. The audience believes they are Jacks.
- The fourth Jack is the lookout — leave it on top. Except all four are on top, together, which is the point.
- Turn over the top four. Four Jacks, reunited on the roof.
Why it works
Because you showed four cards and placed seven.
Everything after that is storytelling. The three cards traveling into the deck are strangers nobody ever saw the face of, and the Jacks never move at all.
The one ordering mistake that ruins it.
The three hidden cards must sit above the Jacks in the packet, not behind them in the fan. Get it backwards and the cards you push into the deck are the Jacks themselves, and you turn over the top four to find three strangers and a Jack. It is the only way this trick fails, and it fails completely.
Checked in code: with the strangers above, the four Jacks are still together on top after all three are buried.
Making it play
- Tell it as a story, slowly. The method takes fifteen seconds. The story should take a minute. That ratio is the trick.
- Name the floors as you deal. "Basement. Ground floor. Bedrooms." A rhythm makes the three cards feel like three destinations rather than three cards.
- Do not show the faces as you bury them. There is never a reason to, and a routine that never invites the question does not have to answer it.
Questions people ask
What is the four robbers card trick?
Four Jacks break into a house. One robber searches each floor — one Jack goes into each quarter of the deck — the lookout on the roof signals, and all four are found together on top.
People also call it the Four Burglars, and it is one of the first tricks most magicians ever learn.
How does the four robbers card trick work?
Three ordinary cards are hidden behind the Jacks before you start, and they sit above them, not below.
So when you fan four cards and say "four Jacks", the audience sees the four Jacks, but the three cards you then deal off the top and push into the deck are the strangers. The Jacks never move. They are still together, on top, waiting.
What is the one way the four robbers trick goes wrong?
Building the packet backwards. Put the Jacks on top of the strangers and the cards you push into the deck are the Jacks themselves, so you bury them with your own hands and there is nothing on the roof.
The strangers have to sit above the Jacks, because the top three are the ones that go away. You can build it the wrong way here and watch it fail.
Do you need to set the deck up for the four robbers trick?
You need about a minute. Find the four Jacks, put three other cards on top of them, and square the seven up. The rest of the deck can be shuffled by anybody.
Is the four robbers trick self-working?
Yes. There is no sleight of hand anywhere in it. Once the seven cards are in the right order the trick runs itself, and the spectator can choose which floor each robber searches, because the floors never mattered.
More
All of these, with the ones you can deal through on screen, are on the self-working card tricks page.
Harrison Alley
Hobbyist · Writes Sleightless
A hobbyist, not a professional. I write up the self-working end of card magic, because it is the door I would point a beginner at, and every trainer here is played through and checked before it ships.