Firms soon found a way of outwitting P. The method is simple: F1 agrees to pay P for the key piece of information after he gets the contract. F1 then secretly passes the information on to F2 in exchange for a share of the profits. When F1 withdraws, F2 walks out with the contract, owing P nothing. Of course, P then has an additional incentive to seek mafia protection, and to demand payment in advance. Such tricks may turn out to be too clever. More than one local administrator has lost his life because of deceptions of this kind. P, for instance, may sell the information to more than one firm; thus F1 and F2 both make the correct bid and find themselves at an awkward impasse.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 581