The Indian Rope Trick

The Indian rope trick is a legendary feat of magic in which a performer throws a rope into the air, the rope stays rigid, a boy climbs to the top and disappears. It is famous around the world, yet no reliable eyewitness has ever confirmed the full version being performed outdoors, and historians have shown that its modern fame began with a newspaper hoax in 1890.

The legend

In the full story the trick is done in the open air, far from any theatre. A fakir coils a rope on the ground and throws one end upward, where it stays standing. A boy climbs it and vanishes at the top. In some versions the fakir follows with a knife, pieces of the boy fall to the ground, and the boy is then restored whole.

Travellers' tales of something like this are old. The fourteenth-century traveller Ibn Battuta described a performance of a similar kind that he said he saw in China, and similar wonders appear in other early accounts from Asia. These stories are vivid but impossible to check.

The 1890 hoax

The version that spread across the Western world began on 8 August 1890, when the Chicago Tribune published an account of two travellers who said they had seen the rope trick in India and had photographed it. The story was written by a young journalist, John Elbert Wilkie, under the name Fred S. Ellmore, which was meant to be read as "sell more".

A few months later the paper admitted that the story had been invented. By then it had been reprinted widely, and the retraction travelled much less far than the original. The historian Peter Lamont traced this history in detail in his 2004 book The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick.

Rewards never claimed

In the twentieth century magicians in Britain and elsewhere offered large rewards to anyone who could perform the legendary outdoor version under fair conditions. The Magic Circle in London was among those that offered a prize in the 1930s. No one ever collected.

On stage

Magicians have presented stage versions, with a rope rising and an assistant climbing or vanishing, for well over a century. These are theatre illusions performed under stage conditions, not the outdoor legend, and their methods belong to the performers. Rope remains a favourite subject in close-up magic too, as in the cut and restored rope; see rope magic tricks for the classics.

Why it endures

The rope trick is a perfect story: exotic, impossible and told by someone who swears they saw it. It shows how a newspaper story can turn into what people believe is ancient tradition. For more on how magic's legends grew, see the history of magic and street magic.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Indian rope trick real?

The full outdoor version, with a boy climbing a free-standing rope and vanishing, has never been reliably witnessed. Its fame in the West began with an 1890 newspaper hoax.

Who made up the Indian rope trick story?

The famous 1890 Chicago Tribune account was written by John Elbert Wilkie under the pen name Fred S. Ellmore. The paper later admitted it was invented.

Has the Indian rope trick been explained?

Historians have explained where the legend came from. Stage versions are performed by magicians, and their methods remain the performers' secrets.

Did anyone win the reward for the Indian rope trick?

No. Rewards offered by magicians' societies, including The Magic Circle, were never claimed.