Face it, we all lie. If you are currently denying that, you are a liar. It starts when we are little and we look at our parents, with wide eyes, point to our siblings and say, “They did it!” Sometimes we lie because we are afraid of getting into trouble. Sometimes we lie because we are afraid of the truth.
“I have a headache.”
“That dress looks amazing on you.”
“Of course you are right, dear, you are always right!”
We lie to spare others hurt feelings. The list goes on and on. But what happens when someone thinks you are lying and you are really telling the truth? How can that situation end well? Allow me to share a story.
Once upon a time, there was a princess who was meeting her friend for coffee. [Okay, I know I am not a princess, more like the evil queen, and people who know me know that I don’t drink coffee, but I digress.] She parked her horse-drawn carriage, turned off her cell phone, retrieved quarters from her pocket and put two of them in the golden meter. The meter continued to flash 0:00. “Hmm,” the princess said aloud “it seems that this meter is broken, how wonderful! My prince will be so happy that I saved 75 cents on parking!”
She proceeded to skip down the street to meet her friend (insert obvious comment on the visual of me skipping down the street here). After two and-a-half hours of laughter, delightful conversation and coming up with a plan for world peace and the end of global warming (or global freezing, take your pick), the princess and her friend threw out the rest of their non-alcoholic libations and headed back to reality.
It was then that the princess noticed a large, burly traffic officer walking down the block.
“Good afternoon officer! I guess you noticed that the golden meter by my horse drawn carriage was not working and you did not have to write me a ticket,” the princess said in her delightful sing-song manner and pleasant disposition.
“Whatever are you talking about? I issued your carriage a ticket,” he gruffly responded.
“But kind officer, allow me to show you that the golden meter is broken! Please sir, come with me.”
The princess led the officer to the meter. She snapped her fingers and a bluebird with a quarter magically appeared. She inserted the quarter into the meter to demonstrate that the meter was, indeed, broken. But, much to the princess’ surprise and to the evil officer’s delight, the meter, which had been flashing 0:00 was now flashing 0:30.
“But, officer,” the princess began to cry and shake at the thought of her beloved prince’s reaction to a $30 parking ticket, “I promise you that when I tried the meter before, it was not working. Please, oh please, believe me! If I come home with this ticket, I will be forced into the dungeon where I will have to watch football games and clean up wayward puddles around the toilets!”
The officer looked at the princess, began to laugh maniacally, and walked away muttering, “Not my problem princess, not my problem.”
So boys and girls, what is the lesson you have learned from this tale? That is a very good question. The princess called the courthouse and told them what happened. The kind lady on the phone told the princess that a technician will be checking the golden meter.
“Why would I have shown the officer that the meter wasn’t working if I knew that it was?” the princess asked the kind lady.
“There are many dishonest people in the world,” the lady responded.
So the princess, who was not lying, wrote not guilty on the ticket and mailed it back. Only time will tell if the princess will have to pay the fine and be sent to the dungeon. Good thing football season will be over by then…
By Banji Latkin Ganchrow
