On Thai People and Lying
I have often been heard to say to the Thai staff at the Jasmine Mansion, in my usual exasperated tones, ‘If you are going to lie then do so properly. Lie to the level where you are unlikely to be found out or, at least, make the story believable.’ Lying in Thailand is at a level where you have to be a complete muppet not to see through it. Initially you consider that the person lying to you is treating you with total contempt — so pathetic and lame is the story they are spinning you. However, I have come to realise that the lack of credibility is not due to me being perceived as stupid. It is that the person telling the lie just does not know how to properly think things through before providing you with a fabricated yarn.
As a race, telling lies does not come naturally to Thai people. Of course, there is a problem associated with them not wanting to ‘lose face’ and this is a situation where lying would actually be rather beneficial to them. However, they usually circumvent this by not responding to any direct questions which they either do not know the answer to or that the answer would show them to be in the wrong. This therefore obviates the need to lie. They will, instead, simply stare at the floor in the manner of a shamed puppy that has just urinated on your brand new Persian rug or alternatively smile tentatively like a young child begging forgiveness. Both of these actions are assured to induce you to rage. When you have gone red faced and shouted they become terribly upset, they cannot understand why you are behaving in such a barbaric fashion — you are now in the wrong!
I hold the opinion that lying is something the Thais have learned from Westerners. The most typical introduction here in Pattaya will be from a farang who meets a lady in a bar, takes her back to his hotel and then, in the morning, tells her he will come to the bar again that evening. He will not go to the bar of course; he never had any intention of going to that bar ever again. However, rather than tell the girl this was an affair for the one night only he lies. The girl will wait for him, looking eagerly at every customer who approaches until it becomes clear that her man is not going to arrive. The other girls will then inform her that this happens all of the time — farangs tell lies. Whilst they will understand it is not pleasant to be on the receiving end of a lie, they realise its potential value and thus it becomes an adopted form of behaviour.
