In this article, the author explores the reasons why students engage in plagiarism. Students perceive plagiarism to be standard practice at their college. They believe that any means to a good grade are legitimate. He further asserts that students plagiarize in ways that are extremely easy to catch. They cut and paste without thinking to cover their tracks. They copy from the most obvious sources possible. They find and replace words and then do not proofread to ensure clarity. The author points out that students cannot entirely be blamed for the narrow-mindedness they come to college with, but they absolutely can be blamed for persisting in it in the face of their colleges' best efforts to expand their horizons. He concludes by saying that plagiarism is, therefore, not only dishonest; it is also a sign of students' shamefully entrenched satisfaction with their limitations. The paradox of plagiarism is that in order to be really good at it, students need precisely the reading and writing skills that ought to render plagiarism unnecessary.