They had stayed too long at play,
And now they would miss their test.
Prof. Brown was unforgiving,
Not gullible like the rest.

They needed a good story
That Prof. Brown would think sincere.
This test they missed, their final,
Most important of the year.

Just then they passed a woman,
At her car beside the road.
As she struggled with her spare
Which was too much of a load.

They honked and they waved at her
As they went on speeding by
But she would be their story,
A most convenient lie.

They told Prof. Brown the story,
How they started back on time
But not to help this lady,
Would have been an awful crime.

When they went to change her tire,
The spare was to low on air,
So they took it into town
Which was twenty miles from there.

Prof listened to their story
(He was gullible indeed),
They went on to embellish,
How they helped a soul in need.

He said, “Stop, I’ve heard enough.
I will give a make-up test.”
It will have just two questions,
And be different from the rest.

In separate rooms he sat them
And he gave them each the quiz,
Question one was too easy.
The test looked to be a whiz.

When they read the second one,
They knew their fate was dire.
For it counted ninety points.
And the question was, “Which tire?”

Truth is easy to defend no matter from which direction it is approached. A lie can only be defended with another lie and therein lies the problem. When two or more people are involved the lie becomes more difficult. I think that I read somewhere that with each additional participant, the probability of exposure goes up by a factor of ten.

The professor gave the boys a simple test; if they were telling the truth, an ‘A’ was almost a certainty, without a lucky guess, an ‘F’ was just as certain if they were lying.