Honesty is the Best Policy

Tell a story about someone who gets in trouble for telling the truth. I didn’t know how to go about this one for a long time until a coworker told someone to tell the truth about something. He couldn’t remember what the saying was, I had to remind him. Thats when this prompt came to mind and a story vary quickly followed.

Don grew up different from other children. He couldn’t lie. Not like he got in trouble if he did, or that he felt guilty if he tried. But simply could not lie if he needed too. At first no one even realized this was an ability of his. Of course, the old saying is ‘honesty is the best policy’ and all of Don’s classmates learned this at the same time Don did. So, all adults thought that Don was just a good, truthful child.

It wasn’t till middle school when his classmates started to figure out that white lies could spare feelings that Don figured out, he was different. As hard as he tried to conform, he always ended up telling the truth about something. Which would lead to someone’s feelings getting hurt. After quite a few instances of this Don eventually got labeled as a bully. No matter how apologetic he was or how much he swore he was just trying to be truthful, he ended up in detention a lot.

His parents got fed up and took him to a psychologist. Don was smart and got good grades, but the school was threatening to hold Don back based on his behavior alone if something wasn’t done to change it. It took a few sessions for the doctor to claim that Don had autism. But a second opinion showed he had no other symptoms. The second doctor diagnosed him with social anxiety. But this didn’t fit either. Over the next several years it was rinse and repeated. When his senior year of high school came around, he was a social outcast among his classmates. He decided not to attend college. He wanted to get a diagnosis that made sense, so he begged his parents and current psychiatrist to do a scan of his brain. They finally gave in when Don pointed out that it would be difficult for him to find a job and keep it without answers.

It took two years and three doctors to find it. A small tumor in Don’s brain that was putting pressure on the area of the brain that helps control lying. His parents and him were shocked. The doctor showed examples of people’s brains when lying and when telling the truth. Then the doctor showed Don’s scans that one of the areas that allow people to lie was blocked by that small tumor. When the doctor asked Don’s parents, they said that Don was always a truthful kid, but they thought they had just got lucky teaching him not to lie so early on. The doctors think this was something that he was either born with or started growing shortly after.

After the surgery took place and Don had recovered, it was recommended that he stay with a psychiatrist so that he could work out the right social situations that laying was okay and telling the truth was a better option.

Eventually Don was able to manage the world on his own. He found a job and took night classes at the local community college. Life went on and Don figured out that honesty is not always the best policy.