Regarding the Pauli principle in quantum field theory and in many-body
quantum mechanics, Feynman advocated that Pauli's exclusion principle can be
completely ignored in intermediate states of perturbation theory. He observed
that all virtual processes (of the same order) that violate the Pauli principle
cancel out. Feynman accordingly introduced a prescription, which is to
disregard the Pauli principle in all intermediate processes. This ingeneous
trick is of crucial importance in the Feynman diagram technique. We show,
however, an example in which Feynman's prescription fails. This casts doubts on
the general validity of Feynman's prescription
