"...somebody help me!!..." cried the little boy

"...somebody help me!!..." cried the little boy in pain as he recovered from the tumble.

I was waiting in the school compound for my daughter to finish her classes and come down. The ground floor lobby of the school connected to the school compound via a short flight of stairs. After a while, a child, approximately 6 to 9 years old, came running down the lobby and leaped from the lobby onto the compound, jumping over 3-4 levels of stairs. The landing probably wasn't as smooth as he anticipated. He took a tumble and likely sprained his leg in the process.

He immediately screamed for help, and a couple of boys nearby came to lend him a hand. "No, wait, it's painful. Stay away!" he yelled when they tried to pull him up. There was a lady security guard standing there who rushed over. "Why did you run and jump?" she asked, furrowing her brow. "I wasn't running," declared the child in a loud tone. A few moments later, a class teacher passed by and inquired about what happened. "Teacher, I slipped on the stairs," said the child, probably knowing he couldn't confess about his daredevil act of jumping over them. The teacher consoled him and asked him to try to get up, but the child remained on the floor.

A minute later, a gentleman with a mustache arrived at the scene. He wore a cap and the back of his jacket had the word "Coach" printed on it. He also inquired about the situation. "Sir, I was coming down the stairs, and someone plonked their foot, making me fall," claimed the child now, as I stood there like a helpless third umpire whom no one was going to consult to know the actual facts. Coach sir was firm, like any other coach would be. Without engaging in any conversation, he held both hands of the child and asked him to get up. Eventually, with some encouragement, the child limped out of the ground.

The behavior the little kid exhibited wasn't totally unexpected for his age. "Lies" would be too strong a term for what he did. The manipulation of the scene was probably done by his mind as an act of self-defense from possible reprimanding he would have received had he stated facts each time. The degree of fact manipulation increased based on the authority he was interacting with.

While such manipulation by adults is definitely not appreciated and is looked down upon, it's not all that uncommon either. When one is cornered (for a mistake they committed, for underperforming, or for something they know they could be reprimanded for), one starts defending their position by resorting to manipulation of facts, sometimes harmless and at times grave. Some get away with it sometimes, and some don't, based on the gravity of the situation and authority involved. Usually, the degree of manipulation in facts increases with rising authority as well.

Staying silent or accepting the deed, rather than getting sucked into such a spiraling web by resorting to manipulations, is probably difficult but the right thing to do.