The Volts certainly achieved that, setting Wellington the highly unlikely target of 501 for victory from 55 overs.
The home side went through the motions of chasing the mammoth total but, with a draw inevitable, the teams agreed to an early finish with Wellington 125 for three.
Otago has talked up the merits of being prepared to lose a game in order to win it in the past. But when it came to the crunch, it was not prepared to keep Wellington interested with a sporting declaration and instead batted on before eventually declaring at 369 for eight.
It effectively killed off any prospect of a result, but then Otago was down a seamer with Ian Butler unable to bowl because of a back complaint.
Volts coach Vaughn Johnson said it was a team decision to bat on rather than set a more attainable target.
''Butler is out for an indefinite amount of time and we only had the three seamers,'' he said.
''Also we were in a precarious position this morning and we had to make sure we got enough runs to avoid losing the game first. As it ended up we got runs quite quickly, so it meant we were safe at the time we pulled out. That meant we could put more pressure on them.
''It was a team decision to pull out with 55 overs to go.''
Left-armers Blair Soper and Bradley Scott were both managing niggles and Otago did not believe it could spend 80 overs in the field to try to win the game. From that point of view, a draw was the best remaining option.
Otago will travel to Christchurch today and begin preparations for its season-opening twenty20 match against Canterbury at Hagley Oval on Saturday.
Butler, who was due to have a scan yesterday but will have it today instead, has been ruled out. James McMillan shapes as his most likely replacement.
Otago resumed on 138 for four with a overall lead of 269.
Sam Wells pushed on from his overnight score of 42 to bring up his 16th first-class half century, but was trapped in front by Jeetan Patel shortly after raising the milestone.
Volts skipper Derek de Boorder began the day on six. He played patiently at first but warmed into the innings, hitting 11 fours. He looked on track to post his third century before he was stumped on 95 from the bowling of Luke Woodcock.
Spinner Mark Craig was the other major contributor, getting through to 80 before he offered a catch.
He also picked up two wickets in Wellington's second innings.
