Tall tales & faradiddles: The art of extending the truth.

Now hand on heart most of us have an one time or another told a tall tales, extended the truth or perhaps make up a bare faced lie “honestly it was on special offer!” is probable my most common one!

But according to an article in The Independent almost 10% of you have lied about saving another person’s life! The survey carried about by experience gift firm intotheblue.co.uk also showed that a majority of us have been told these tales by fellow co-workers! 35% in fact. This only goes to confirm some suspicions I’ve had about an old colleague who claimed he’d bungee jumped off about 50 bridges but didn’t have a single photo!! At least he wasn’t one of the 45% who claimed he’d sky dived!

The sheer diversity of lies I think is what caught me most! From charity fundraising through to working in the forces! And shockingly only 15% of you got caught and you’d all lie again. I can remember interviewing for a position and accepting a person who was incredibly charming with a fabulous resume only to be told chatting in the pub one lunch time about 8 months later that most of his CV was a lie and isn’t that what everyone did! Needless to say a year later he wasn’t still at the job.

My biggest ever tall tale (personally I prefer faradiddle – it sounds less serious than lie!) would have to be to my husband over the purchase of our first dog. He’s a cat person and having been brought up in SA is more than a little nervous of them so when out with my manager on a lunch break I found a gorgeous little west highland terrier the size of my hand I lied horribly and informed him it only cost £50, in fact she was KC registered and there was another nought on the end. Impressively though it took 6 years for him to find that out and by then he was besotted!

So come on folks, whats your worse little white lie or tall tale and can you carry it off without tell-tale blushing and stuttering?