Recently, I asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us if they have ever told a little white lie or non-malicious lie only to get caught.
I got lots of responses. Below are just some of the comments that'll give you second-hand embarrassment and make you say, "I get why they lied and it was cringe they were caught":
1. "It was Saint Paddy’s Day, and I called off work sick to go drinking with my friends. We went to a popular local Irish bar, and I ended up getting drunk pretty early in the day. So much so that when the local news crew ended up arriving at the bar to do a segment, I was chatting up and drunkenly dancing with the reporter who was interviewing people. Ended up on the local 6 p.m. news completely shitfaced. Turns out my boss watched the news nightly, along with several of my coworkers. Busted, LOL."
2. "We were eating at my cousin's for dinner one night, and my aunt brought out the dessert, an apple cake she had worked really hard on. She began to cut slices and serve to everyone. As people began eating their piece, it was clear that the cake was really disgusting, but my uncle silently told everyone to keep eating so my aunt wouldn't be offended. In essence, lie to my aunt that we loved the cake, even though each bite was torturous. So we're sitting there, painfully chewing and swallowing the cake, trying hard to keep smiling."
"Finally my aunt sat down and took a bite. She immediately spit it out and said, 'This cake tastes awful! Why are you all eating it?!' Relieved, the rest of us threw down our forks, spit out what was in our mouth, and washed our mouths out until no remnant of the cake was left. Still a family joke till this day. :)"
—cnf1
3. "Back in the early 2000s, our family computer died, and I immediately knew it was probably from a virus it got from downloading so many MP3s off LimeWire. My parents, who probably read about it, had told me I was not to download anything from a peer-to-peer site because they didn't want any trouble from the FBI. I figured we would just throw out the old computer and get a new one, but instead one day while I was at school, my dad took the computer to the shop to get it looked at and repaired."
"When I got home, I was a little worried when my mom told me my dad had taken the computer to get fixed, but figured there was no way it would turn on again. A few days later, my dad got a call from the computer repair guy asking him if he wanted him to back-up some files and the file of MP3s before he erased the computer's hard drive."
—Anonymous
4. "For years, my husband has loved my 'homemade' angel food cake. It's actually the angel food cake that is displayed above the strawberries at Walmart. I just so happen to have a pan that it fits perfectly in, so it was extra convincing. Until he found the package in the trash, he thought I made it. He still loves it and still calls it my angel food cake."
5. "I used to be involved in petty crime, and would often use an alias. One evening, a cop rolled up on me while I was walking, and thinking quickly, I pretended to be 'Henry,' a young man with a learning disability who lived with his grandmother. After a short and friendly conversation with the cop explaining how I was collecting cans late at night to supplement my grandmother’s income, in which I’m certain, he was believing; a second cop pulls up, looks me in the eye, and says, 'Hey Eric, what’s going on?' I did a few months in the county on unrelated warrants as a result, but the misinformation charge was dropped because the first cop never asked for identification."
6. "I was babysitting a 5-year-old when I accidentally passed gas. Of course, I blamed it on him. Then he said he knew it was me because his farts don’t smell like that. To which I responded that I can’t fart because I don’t have a bum. To which he responded, 'Then why were you pooping in the bathroom before?' Point. Set. Match."
7. "I am a super picky eater. Many years ago, my then-boyfriend invited me to meet his family at a family party they were having. His family was nice...but the food did not look appetizing at all, and to not come across as rude, I told them I was vegan (to which my ex played along with). Though, I did find some Domino's they had ordered for the kids and some veggies with ranch to eat. While I was munching on that, my ex's cousin, who actually was a vegan, asked me why I was eating cheese and dairy if I really was vegan."
8. "When I was a kid, I pretended to be sick so I could go to the arcade that used to be located inside one of the malls in my city. My teacher later told me that she saw me standing at the bus stop. 💀"
9. "I clogged a toilet at a friend of a friend's birthday party. It was an old house, and I didn't know you weren't supposed to flush the toilet paper. When my friend's friend found out there was a problem with the toilet, she politely asked if any of us had used the bathroom and flushed toilet paper or something else down. Thinking no one saw me use the bathroom, I shook my head no; her 5-or-6-year-old daughter who was within earshot then loudly said, 'I saw her use the bathroom, mommy.'"
10. "It was my sophomore year of high school, and my brother was a senior. I forged a note to skip and gave it to my German teacher. It said I had an appointment with my therapist. My teacher then asked my brother about it, and he told her no, that I don’t see a therapist. Busted! Most teachers were too embarrassed to bring it up."
11. "Not me but a close high school friend in 1985. A group of us were at the mall, and near the cinemas there was a wall of flashing lights with a small sign warning that the strobing lights may cause seizures. My friend thought it would be funny to roll on the floor and pretend to have a seizure. We didn’t know it was a joke and began screaming for help. Within seconds an off-duty nurse came to his aid, and two minutes later the paramedics were attending to him and soon rushing him to the hospital."
"He went through multiple tests and an MRI but was so scared of getting in trouble he kept the secret. Two months later, his mom was making plans to drive him out of state to see a specialist, and he finally confessed that it was just a horrible joke gone wrong."
—Anonymous
12. "In elementary school, my dad and I had a tradition of going to the dollar store and me getting to pick out one item. In fourth grade, I chose blue reading glasses with daisies and wore them to school for the next few days. Being 9, I quickly grew tired of wearing them, and when I showed up to school the next time without them, my teacher questioned me. I had to admit to the whole class I had been lying and didn't really need glasses. Still traumatized by that one!"
13. "When I was 8 or 9 years old, my older cousin (who was more like a sister), then 16, was the coolest person on earth. She had the coolest eyeshadow, a copper shade with orange and gold tones that looked good on me. I took said makeup and blamed it on her younger sister. We lived in different states, and my cousin was bummed that it went missing, and her sister was upset she got blamed for it."
"Our grandmother who lived with us, asked me about it and, of course, I denied it. I later got caught wearing the evidence on my eyes, and from what I know, my cousin never found out who took it. It turned out it was a Lancôme shadow, and that little act of theft started a habit of expensive, high-end makeup and skincare, while also developing first name basis-type thing with both Sephora and Ulta staff. Both of my cousins forgot about this incident until I fessed up on my older cousin’s 50th birthday 10 years ago."
—Anonymous
14. "Years ago, many, MANY years ago, a friend and I were playing with our Hot Wheels cars in my basement. I had to leave for a couple of minutes, and when I returned I noticed my favorite car was missing. I asked him if he knew where it was, and he pretended to look for it. I knew my friend had taken it. I told him that maybe I had left it upstairs to give him an opportunity to put the car back. When I came back downstairs, my car was there."
15. "To impress some guy I was on a first date with, I told him I really liked The Simpsons (his favorite comfort show...and that I maybe have seen one episode of). He then began quoting it, and I had no idea what the jokes were. When he asked me to tell him my favorite quote, I froze and fessed up. We did not have a second date."
16. "When I first met my wife, she was drinking White Russians. We got to talking, and she said they were her favorite drink. And wouldn't you know it? They turned out to be my favorite drink as well. Fast-forward six years and we're getting married, and we're picking our signature drinks for the reception. Obviously, she wanted White Russians. At that time, I finally told her that I didn't really like White Russians and only said that to continue talking to her that night. We wound up doing whiskey sours as our signature cocktail as we both really liked them, and drank them a lot when we went out. Because she's a saint, our marriage survived my betrayal. :-P"
17. And lastly, "I'm a 55-year-old gay combat veteran. I was the king of white lies for the first 23 years of my life."
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.