by Abdulkadir Musa

Created on: September 14, 2009

Every day, as we interact with people, we tell lies. Whether we tell little white lies or serious ones does not matter. The fact is that we tell lies and this has come to be man's second nature. When people tell lies, they always claim to have sincere and cogent reasons for telling that lie. In trying to cover the first lie, another lie is told and this leads to an endless cycle of lies. Whether we lie by omission or by inclusion, the problem is that we have tried to deceive someone and rob him off the truth which is unfair.

People who lie usually come up with different excuses for lying so as to shift the blame from them to other people or events. When some people lie, they say they are trying to protect the person from the truth which in reality, is due to cowardice on their part that they are unable to tell the truth. For example, a couple may adopt a child and refuse to tell him that they are not his/her real parents until the child find out from another source. The couple would say that they did not tell the child they were not the biological parents because they did not want the child to feel like an outsider when in reality they were afraid that they would lose the child if they said they were not the child's biological parents.

Others believe that if they told the person the truth, they would put a burden on the other person's mind. For example, a husband who has lost his job and keeps on pretending that everything is all right would claim that he is trying to relieve his wife and children of some pressure. This is pure deceit. His wife and children have the right to know that he has lost his job and they on their part would help him cut some expenses they cannot afford. Who knows if in the end it would be his children who would be the ones to help find a better job for him?

Another reason why people tell lies is because they do not want a loved one to find out about what they did in the past. This usually happens in relationships where couples refuse to let their spouses know them completely. The end result is a break-up because the person who is lied to would feel he/she was not trusted enough to be told the truth.

Personally, I don't believe there is any human alive that does not lie. It is the number of times we tell lies that shows the kind of person we are. Lying causes deceit, mistrust and heart break and Isaac Watts is right to say that 'he who does one wrong deed makes it two when he lies'.

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