Keep the Reward/Playing With

Basic Trope: A hero turns down a reward offered for a good deed.

• Straight: Max turns down money offered for helping his neighbor.
• Exaggerated: Max turns down a badge of a high-ranking position and with it, recognition.
• Justified: The reward doesn't help Max advance his goals or help him on his quest.
  • Max used to know someone personally, whose ego swelled out of his hands after accepting all the rewards given to him. To Max, who doesn't want to become like this person, it makes sense to generously refuse this reward.
  • Max has everything he needs and thinks it would be unreasonable to take from someone who would do more with it anyways.
  • Max believes he will get a better reputation if he also projects the virtue of generosity.
  • Max has never cared about money/whatever else is offered to him and simply is the kind of person who enjoys doing good deeds.
• Inverted: Max pretends to do a heroic deed, then comes and demands for a reward he hasn't even earned.
  • Max does a heroic deed, but is utterly dismayed when he dosn't get his rightful, promised reward. He then goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • Alternatively, Max simply hangs around and pesters/coerces/blackmails/guilt-trips/influences/persuades the promiser to give the reward.
• Subverted: Max accepts the reward happily.
• Double Subverted: However, he only takes as much money as he needs to pay his rent/buy the thing he always wanted/etc. The rest he lets the giver keep.
  • He accepts the full reward and secretly returns the portion he didn't need.
  • Max accepts the reward... And promptly gives it to charity.
• Parodied: ???
• Zig Zagged: Max is conflicted over whether he should accept the reward or not, seeing benefits and downsides to both.
• Averted: No mention of a possible reward comes up and no one pretends otherwise, being motivated by other things.
• Enforced: ???
• Lampshaded: I'm astonished he seems so content without a reward.
• Invoked: A greedy, selfish hero decides he's gotten enough of what he wants and thinks he can, for once or from that point on, turn down a reward.
• Exploited: ???
• Defied: I know you don't generally accept rewards and I don't care. Accept this as a token of my gratitude.
• Discussed: ???
• Conversed: ???

---

Back to Keep the Reward, although the mere trip there is reward enough.