Of Swords and Parasols

There's a most-likely-apocryphal story of how two American POWs managed to escape a German POW camp during WWII. They stole a measuring tape and a clipboard, then with one wielding the tape and the other making notes on the clipboard, managed to measure themselves out of camp. None of the German soldiers stopped them because everyone knows Germans are fanatical about order and records and everyone assumed that the prisoners had been given orders to do that by Somebody Else.

But OTOH, never underestimate the power of the clipboard to make it look like you belong somewhere. XD