This Long-Standing Tootsie Pop Rumor Just Got Debunked — and Our Childhoods Are Ruined

Finding out how many licks it took to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop is pretty much a rite of passage for kids. Another memorable part of the ritual? Smoothing out the wrapper and searching for a boy with a bow and arrow shooting a star, in the hopes of cashing in on some free candy. But unfortunately, finding this image on the wrapper doesn't actually mean you get a free pop — and that's certainly news to us.

According to Tootsie's website, no one is even really sure how that rumor got started.

"It has been rumored that local convenience stores used to give a free Tootsie Pop to anyone who brought in a wrapper containing the image of the shooting star. Unfortunately, we do not know how this rumor started, and Tootsie Roll Industries has never actually honored this promotion."

The website also explains that the boy shooting the star is actually just as common as the rest of the symbols.

"In fact, the shooting star appears on one in every four to six Tootsie Pop wrappers, just as frequent as the other images appear."

Given the fact that the Tootsie Pop was invented in 1931, that's a pretty long-standing rumor. So the next time you grab a sucker from the store, no need to waste your time trying to spot the famous image.