Before speaking a lie merely to escape an uncomfortable moment, one should ask a simple question: How many more lies will I need to tell to protect this one? The answer may be enough to choose honesty.
By: Hakeem Prem Chandwani
A lie rarely travels alone. It usually gives birth to another lie, and that second lie demands a third one to protect it. Before long, a small falsehood can become a complicated web from which its creator finds it difficult to escape. This is the quiet danger of lying: one lie may appear convenient for a moment, but it often creates a burden that grows with every attempt to hide the truth.
Truth may sometimes be difficult to speak, but it does not require an elaborate memory. A truthful person does not have to remember what was invented yesterday, what was changed today, or what must be invented tomorrow. A lie, however, needs constant maintenance. Every question becomes a threat, every contradiction becomes a problem, and every new situation may require another explanation.
The first lie often begins with a seemingly harmless intention, to avoid embarrassment, escape responsibility, protect an image, or gain an advantage. Yet once the false statement is accepted, the liar becomes responsible for defending it. The truth that was hidden does not disappear; it remains beneath the surface, waiting to emerge. Consequently, one lie becomes the foundation upon which another is constructed.
The damage is not limited to the person who tells the lie. Trust is also wounded. Relationships survive not merely through affection but through confidence. When people discover that they have been deceived, they begin to question not only the particular statement but also the credibility of the person who made it. A single falsehood can therefore cast doubt upon many truths that were previously believed.
Society faces an even greater danger when lying becomes normal. If false promises, fabricated information, dishonest excuses and deliberate deception are treated as ordinary tools of life, moral boundaries gradually become blurred. People may begin to judge honesty as weakness and deception as cleverness. That is the moment when a personal fault can become a social problem.
The wiser path is not to search for a better lie but to return to the truth. Admitting a mistake may cause temporary embarrassment, but accepting responsibility can restore dignity. Saying “I was wrong” may be difficult for the tongue, yet it can save the heart from carrying a much heavier burden.
Truth does not always provide an easy road. Sometimes honesty demands courage, patience and sacrifice. But it offers something deception cannot provide: inner peace. A truthful life may have difficult moments, but it does not need the complicated architecture of invented stories.
A lie begets a lie because falsehood must continually defend itself. Truth, by contrast, stands on its own.
Therefore, before speaking a lie merely to escape an uncomfortable moment, one should ask a simple question: How many more lies will I need to tell to protect this one? The answer may be enough to choose honesty.
Read: First Deserve, Then Desire
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Hakeem Prem Chandwani, a poet and column, is based in Dokri town of Sindh. This is translation of his Sindhi article
