Pasting the sprite and seeing the sprite itself are two different things. When you paste a sprite, it behaves like a rubber stamp and you can put it on any bitmap you want. But the sprite itself is always displayed unless hidden or off screen.
rem create bitmap 1 and 2
create bitmap 1,screen width(),screen height()
create bitmap 2,screen width(),screen height()
rem create a box as an image
ink rgb(255,0,0),0
box 0,0,200,200
get image 1,0,0,201,201
rem make a sprite out of image 1 and create it somewhere offscreen
rem or hide it - or maybe both - it's up to you
sprite 1,-900,-900,1
hide sprite 1
rem switch to bitmap 0
set current bitmap 0
repeat
text 0,0,"Press Space to paste sprite to screen 2. We shouldn't see anything"
until spacekey()=1
repeat
rem wait for spacekey release
until scancode()=0
rem let's see if it will show on bitmap 0 if we paste it to bitmap 2
set current bitmap 2
paste sprite 1,100,100
rem now switch backto bimap 0 and try again
set current bitmap 0
repeat
text 0,40,"Ok, now let's paste it to screen 0 - press space"
until spacekey()=1
paste sprite 1,100,100
Enjoy your day.
