January 16, 2020 | Samuel Ira

People Share The Little White Lie They Told That Ended Up Consuming Their Lives


Lying is a part of human nature, as much as we try to avoid it. We know it's wrong to lie, but sometimes we do it anyway because, in certain situations, it's just a whole lot better than revealing the truth. It's an especially easy decision to make when a little white lie seems like it will be completely harmless—however, unfortunately, some tiny fibs end up snowballing totally out of proportion. People from around the world took to the internet to share their experiences with lies that went farther than they expected and the stories definitely do not disappoint. Some of their little white lies ended up improving their lives for the better, while others made certain situations a little more awkward to deal with. Read on for some good laughs:

Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!

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#1 Pretend Friends Turned Real

In my freshman year of college, I was walking around campus when a very friendly looking girl waved at me. I'm awkward, so of course, I waved back. The next week, the same thing. This began the weirdest saga of my life. For the next two years, we greeted each other as old friends every time we came across the other. She knew my name, but I never could figure hers out and it was WAY too late to ask. I just pretended I knew who she was and why she knew me.

Finally, I joined the honors program and entered my classes for my thesis. Who should be in this class but the mystery girl! I was horrified. I wouldn't be able to pass it off anymore. On the first day of class, we were all sitting there chatting and she greeted me by name, again. I had finally learned her name from the attendance, thank God.

Someone asked, finally, "Oh, so do you two know each other? Where'd you meet?" Silence. I stared at her. She stared at me. Finally she broke down wailing, "I don't know! I don't know, okay, we've just been waving at each other for two years and it was too late to ask!" She's standing in my wedding next spring as one of my bridesmaids and very best friends.

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#2 Weight Loss Strategy

I told a small lie to a girl I was texting that I love running. I don't know how I sold her on it because I was fat. I started running the second after I sent that text. Five years later, I went from 298 pounds to 180 pounds. Not bad.

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#3 Jewish Imposter

Somebody thought I was Jewish and I didn't want to correct them because I hate confrontation. So now everyone in the school thinks I'm Jewish. My homeroom even got me a Passover card signed by everyone. My brain told me it was time to stop, but I didn't want to ruin the thought of the gesture. I'm debating making my senior yearbook quote: "I'm not really Jewish."

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#4 The Fireman Discount

I became friends with one of the managers at Panera Bread. One day, as I was giving a cashier my order, he told her to give me the same discount as they give to firemen, police, and paramedics. He just chose this discount as it was an easy button to push on the register. Well, this cashier really thought I was a fireman. I'm not. So, for the next two years, this cashier gave me the discount.

Even if she wasn't serving me, she would go out of her way to tell the cashier that was helping me, "He's a fireman, give him the discount." It snowballed into such an awkward situation that I didn't know how to get out of it. Luckily, that cashier eventually transferred to another store and I now happily pay full price.

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#5 From Physics To Engineering

I was dating a girl and I met her parents. I was a freshman in college seeking my physics degree. When I met her dad, he asked me why in the world I would go into physics when it is a difficult field to get work in. Thinking on the spot, I said: “Yeah, I’ve thought about that too and I’ve decided to switch to mechanical engineering.” Welp, I’ll be getting my mechanical engineering degree this May.

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#6 Fake It 'Til You Make It

I was homeless, sleeping under a bridge in Charlotte near the music factory. I needed a job so I dressed as best I could, which wasn't very well, and walked into a bar on 7th with my resume. I lied about my work experience and they gave me the job. I started work that very day. They paid me cash after every shift. I worked there for three years, became the manager, and now I love cooking. I never cooked a day in my life up until that point.

A lady in her 50s who was acting as the kitchen manager trained me. She knew I lied, but she also knew I was in trouble. I couldn't even cut a tomato. She saved my life. She didn't tell anyone and kept training me even though sometimes I'd upset her. But I always tried to do better for her. I got an apartment a month into the job despite getting paid $11 under the table.  I worked as a line cook immediately. It was overwhelming. I'm not from the city and the work was fast-paced. I would study on my time off by watching YouTube and cooking at home.

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#7 A Beneficial Lie

My mother was a super control freak, so one of the ways I would avoid home was by joining after-school extracurriculars. I got the date wrong on a math team meeting, so I lied to my mom about it and actually attended the debate team meeting instead. I probably didn't need to lie, but it was always safer to not disrupt her precious schedule. Eventually, debate became a regular activity for me to avoid home. In three years, I was a state semifinalist and in college, I coached the high school national champions and turned that into a free ride for a master's degree.

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#8 Thinly Veiled Hatred

My fiance has a great one. She's a picky eater, and rather than tell her best friend that she doesn't like bananas, she told her she was allergic to them. For YEARS, her best friend would make sure everything was banana-free. From cakes to desserts, to even clearing her house of anything banana-related. After close to 15 years, my fiance finally told her, "Hey, I just don't like bananas." Nervous, thinly veiled hatred in the form of laughter ensued.

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#9 Sk8ter Boi

I moved to a new city when I was in sixth grade. These two other boys in my class both knew how to skateboard, so I lied and said I did too. Then for months, I lied about being able to skateboard to them and other kids at the school, and I never came clean because I didn’t want anyone to call me a poser. So I bought skater boy clothes and a skateboard, then taught myself how to skateboard because I lied about knowing how to skateboard. I've been skating since then. I’m 28 now.

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#10 Call Me Ian

An electrician came and priced up a job at our rental property.

He greeted me with: “Hi Ian! I’ve come to price some work up.” I replied, “Yep, that’s me”.

My name is not Ian. It’s not even close to Ian. I was too British to correct him with his error, so I just went along with it. It's not the worst lie I’ve ever come out with. In my head I was thinking, at worst, the guy will just call me Ian again when he leaves. He was in my flat for a good 20 minutes, calling me Ian during the conversations we had. Not once did I correct him; I just stayed in character as Ian.

Weeks went by and he eventually came back to do the work at the flat. My wife and me had the day off, and I had forgotten about the whole Ian thing until that day, so I explained to her that if she talked to me that day, she should call me Ian. It was just easier.

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#11 Everyone's Kevin

This is one that doesn't bother me. I had a coworker with memory issues or dementia and he called me Kevin once in a while. That's not my name, obviously. It made me laugh and one of my coworkers started calling me Kevin, telling the new employees that was my real name. This was three years ago and it is still going.

At the same time, I told my son all of this who thought it was hilarious, and somehow it morphed into me calling him Kevin, and my cat too. So I would yell downstairs, "Kevin, is Kevin down there?" My son told his best friend, and they started calling each other Kevin. Now when I see my son's friend, I call him Kevin. For this story to come full circle, my son and his friend came to my office and I introduced them as my son Kevin and his friend Kevin.

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#12 How To Disappoint Your Parents

Living in a college town means that every year, around spring graduation, there are a few parents who go: "I'm here to see my kid graduate, but I haven't been able to locate them." Usually, kids that stop going to school pocket their parents' money and just give up without telling their family. It ends sadly sometimes. That's a big lie to deal with and maintain.

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#13 Just Go With It

I'm from a small town, so I was super worried about how college would go. After move-in day, everyone on our floor had to go around stating our majors and what we wanted to do occupation-wise. I was fourth to go. The first three people said: doctor, lawyer, and surgeon. I was convinced at this point that everyone in college was way smarter than me and had their lives together.

Anyway, I blanked and blurted out economics as my major, then said professor because it was the best thing that came to mind. So now, I'm in my second year of a Ph.D. program because I just never found a good reason to change my major from my RA meeting as a freshman.

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#14 "Who Is Ger?"

Not me, but my Dad. We moved and he was convinced the postman's name was 'Ger' as in short for Gerry. He greeted him by it, nearly every day for about 10 years. We even gave him a Christmas card which he displayed down in the sorting office.

Fast forward a few years later and we had a temporary postman come by instead. My Mum asked him after a few weeks: "When is Ger coming back?" This question was met with stunned silence and a puzzled look. "Who is Ger? No one works in the locality by that name." It turns out, his name is Declan and he was too nice to correct my dad for close to a decade.

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#15 The Name Game

Back in high school, someone in my freshman English class thought he heard someone call me Louis, so he started calling me Louis. He wasn't really a friend, just someone I spoke to on occasion. I thought he was just trying to be funny, so I didn't care to correct him. He continued to call me Louis and whenever I heard him call for me, I responded.

It wasn't until our last week of senior year that he stopped me to say: "Someone told me your name isn't Louis. Is your name Louis?"

"No."

"I-I've been calling you Louis for 4 years! I thought that was your name!"

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#16 The Lavender Lie

One time, my boyfriend's mom asked me if I liked their bathroom soap. It’s lavender, and I don’t like lavender, but I decided to tell her: “I love it, it smells so good!” Now, I have an endless supply. She buys me some all the time. It’s too sweet to tell her the truth, so I just keep it to myself and use the mediocre-smelling soap. Oh well, this is how I live now.

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#17 Milking The Fame

When I was 14 years old, I played with a group of other kids on stage during the 2008 Hawaii International Ukulele Festival. Jack Johnson was performing and we were behind him strumming along. Hundreds of us. This story has turned so thoroughly into me playing on stage side-by-side with him... Just the two of us. I can't correct people anymore and just shamefully accept the "oohs" and "ahhs" when it gets retold.

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#18 Work From Home

I was having a rough time commuting far for work. I decided to quit to find something closer to home but told everyone I had been approved to work from home. When I went to give my two weeks, my manager asked, "I know the driving has been hurting you, how would you feel about working from home?" I've been working at home since then.

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#19 "Exceptional" Excel Skills

"Yeah, I'd say I'm pretty good with MS Excel." No. No, I wasn't. Luckily, I had patient team members and Google, so I was able to figure most of it out. Fast forward a few years, and here we are. I'm an analyst at a Fortune 400 company. Fake it 'til you make it, and regret it but hide it.

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#20 The Things We Do For Love

When I was little, my grandma would make me these horrible frozen chicken tenders filled with cheese. They were just god-awful. Because I am a good grandson, I told her that I loved them. From then on, every time that I visited her, she would cook those abominations. Even when I was in graduate school, I would go visit her and, for one meal, I would have to slide those gross things down my gullet. Every time I would say, "Thanks! I love them!" The things we do for love...

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#21 Self-Taught Success Story

I was looking for a job. I didn't want to be a fast-food manager anymore, so I fluffed out my resume with computer skills that I didn't have. I was contacted by a recruiter who asked me some questions to gauge my abilities. I straight-up Googled the answers as he was asking them. When I went to the interview, the boss had all of these circuit boards sitting all over his desk. I recognized them as Raspberry pis from the internet.

I asked what he was using them for. The rest of the interview was just this guy bragging about all of these projects he had going on. I just feigned interest and said, "Wow" a lot. I eventually got hired. Who knows how this happened, but I have literally Googled every problem I've been given. Day 543, and they still think I know what I'm doing.I'm making 1.5 times what I was making as a manager. I have a GED for chrissakes.

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#22 Buying A Duck

I told my parents I bought a duck when I was 20 to tease them. I found a picture of one online and sent it to them. Sadly, they believed me. They got overly excited about their "grand-duck" and told my whole family. I ended up buying a duck...

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#23 Uncle Bert... Or Ernie?

My uncle's name is Ernie and he owns a restaurant. He likes to talk to guests when they arrive and leave. One of the patrons confused his name with Bert. Being the pleasant and polite Asian dude he is, he didn't have the heart to correct him. Now, whenever this one customer comes, the staff and and my aunt (the manager) has to call him Bert. He is my Uncle Bert now.

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#24 Born With Half A Liver

I wasn't a drinker in high school, so to shut down peer pressure, I told them I was born with half a liver and that drinking anything could make me very sick. The lie just became natural and followed me to college. I was out with some friends playing pool and decided to have a drink. When I came back, a buddy slapped it out of my hand thinking I was going to end myself. Then the explanations began...

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#25 Guess I'm Steve Now

My husband's best friend has a six-year-old daughter that I see often. When she was almost three, she babbled something to me—I think it was "My friends here!" and my husband interpreted it as "My friend Steve!" He started calling me Steve in front of her. Now her whole family calls me Steve when she's around, and she still believes that's my name. For clarity, I'm a female and my name isn't anything close to Steve.

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#26 Big WoW Lie

When I was 12 years old, I lied about my age and made myself older so I could still be somewhat cool in WoW. Now some of my WoW friends settled over with me to other games, and whenever I meet someone new, they're likely connected to them. At this point, it's too awkward to explain that I'm not the oldest, but in fact the youngest in our friend group.

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#27 Deja Vu Dentist

I moved to a new city and got a new dentist. For some reason, the guy thinks I used to see him at his old practice in a town I've never lived in. I corrected him a couple of times, but he just keeps bringing it up, so now I just kind of roll with it. He asks after my parents, which is easy enough...but we've had all kinds of conversations about local restaurants I've never been to and other random stuff like that.

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#28 Up From Rock Bottom

I never told my parents that I got married and moved to Hawaii. Long story short, I messed up in my life and ended up homeless for three years. I've since rehabilitated and made my way back to normalcy. Never again.

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#29 From American To Canadian

I told people at my former (American) university that I was Canadian, to get them to stop talking to me about U.S. politics. I hate confrontation and didn't know how to just tell them that political discussion makes me uncomfortable. Now I live in Canada and attend a Canadian university. I'm working towards citizenship. Oops.

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#30 Contained Anger

I never swear, ever. Actually, I never swear out loud around other people because it's basically one of my character traits to my friends and such at this point. I don't want to deal with everyone freaking out about it if I did swear around them.

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#31 An Interesting Fact About Me

I live in Cambridge, UK and my go-to answer to those "interesting-facts-about-you" moments (you know, corporate icebreakers or interview stuff) is that I got knocked over by Stephen Hawking whilst on the pavement near my house. Partly true, as he lives in the city and travels out and about on said streets. Truth is I just saw him on a path once. I was driving. People love that it's a bit different so I'm going to keep using it.

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#32 I'll Take It I Guess

"You're here for the copywriting position right?"

"Yup!"

I was the only one in the waiting area... I thought I was there for a design and art direction role. Within 15 minutes of the interview, they offered me $2K to move and a $45K starting salary a week before graduation.

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#33 Second Act

Before finishing college, I got a low-level job in the low-level section of a very large company. My first boss liked me a lot—he assumed I had finished college and recommended me for another job, which I got. I did not mention college on my resume and the hiring manager assumed a college degree, given the referral. That repeated three times and now I am within the ranks of solid college grads from solid schools. I never finished and they all assume I have.

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#34 Chocolate Oranges

My mom gave my sister a chocolate orange about 15 years ago and she kind of embarrassed the family by saying it was gross. I didn't want to make my parents feel bad so I said that I'd eat it. It was gross but I pretended to like it. Now every year for Christmas I get a chocolate orange.

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#35 The Unlikely Dad

I told my then-girlfriend that I'd like to have kids someday. I didn't actually want to, but she was hot and I thought saying that was a good idea at the time. Now she's my wife and we have a 1-year-old. No regrets, though. Being a dad is pretty awesome.

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#36 The Fake Allergy

My dad and I both have allergies to one of the ingredients in some kinds of wine. This somehow got twisted into a general allergy to drinks in middle school, and that reputation stuck with me. So I grew up not peer-pressured into drinking in any way. When I got smashed on my birthday as an experiment, I didn't quite see the appeal anyway. Considering how much money I see the other students wasting on drinks every weekend in Scandinavia, I think the misunderstanding struck the jackpot.

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#37 I Hate That Sponge

One time when I was 17, I was hanging out at my girlfriend's house with her and her little sister. The little sister was watching Spongebob and they jumped up to go to the other room, leaving me alone to watch TV. Being polite, I didn't change the channel. In walked their mom, who sees me watching Spongebob. She asked me, "Hey, you like that show?" I replied, again trying to be polite, "Yep!" So every year since then, I've gotten Spongebob SOMETHING from my girlfriend's parents. I'm 33. I hate that sponge.

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#38 In Memory Of Charlie

I recently lost my friend Charlie and was blue about it for a while. One day, I was going about my business and I stopped in a coffee shop. When they asked for a name, I gave them Charlie. This shop was near my work so I frequented it and every time I was Charlie. I still miss that dang dog.

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#39 Bear Wrangler

I'm disabled. I use two crutches to walk. When I'm not actually hobbling along it's one of those disabilities that can be mistaken for just having a broken leg or something. People frequently ask me "What did I do to need those crutches?" When I started university I told a girl that I cage-wrestled a bear. She was tipsy and thought it was hilarious. I thought it was clear that I was completely obviously joking. There is no sane way I could have been serious.

About three hours later, I'm at the student union. Gareth Gates is singing and I'm trying to take a picture of him. I hear two girls in front of me: "Do you know why he's got those?" "Yeah, he got mauled by a bear or something." "Are you serious?" Several months later, I have to go meet my partner for our placement study. I've never met her before in my life, but she knows me already as the guy who got attacked by a bear.

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#40 That's One Way To Get Hitched

A good friend of mine did not have an umbrella on a very rainy day. One of her coworkers offered her a lift home. One lift home turned into two, then three, until he was shuttling her to and from work every day for months. This coworker is also a very good baker—he would make these lovely cakes and pastries and offer them to her which she politely took every day.

Then one afternoon, on her way home, he stopped and picked up his parents. He happily introduced her as his girlfriend. She was shocked by this title, to say the least. They proceeded to invite her to a family gathering over the long weekend to meet EVERYONE. His parents were so nice, so she accepted because she didn't have the heart to embarrass the guy. She went to the gathering, met with other family members and he kept introducing her as his girlfriend. She never worked up the nerve to correct or stop him. Long story short, they are now married.

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#41 Not Really Russian

When I was a sophomore in high school, I managed to convince a new kid that I was born in Russia. Eventually, he ended up telling everybody at school that I'm Russian and I didn't know how to say no to people. I just went with it. I graduated high school last year and people still think I was born in Russia.

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#42 Non-Existent Child

I told friends I fathered a child with a girl I met on vacation in a different state when I was in high school. The whole story involved how she wanted to keep it and how she wouldn't return my calls. It got around school... I married a girl I went to high school with nearly 30 years ago. Occasionally, she asks if I ever think about the child that I brought into the world and what we will do if it ever shows up on our doorstep. Literally everyone I know thinks I have a child that I've never met.

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#43 Gender Swap

I pretended to be a girl on World of Warcraft for a solid two years. I didn't actually set out to do it, I just never corrected anyone when they assumed I was. By the time I thought to come clean, it seemed too awkward.

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#44 A Real Boxer

I said I was an amateur boxer until a real fight popped off. The guy was huge, so I just put my hands up and pretended I knew what I was doing. I put on the meanest face I could make. The guy stood down and said, "Screw that, you could tell he knows how to fight." I signed up to my nearest boxing gym the next day. I actually love it!

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#45 A Lifelong Favor

"I love you" turned into 11 years of marriage, two kids and a divorce. I was a young, dumb kid who just wanted to help his insecure girlfriend feel better.

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