39 Lies That Had Unexpected Consequences For Other People

I told someone that I was in Foster Care with as a teen.......that I believed that she really could become a physician someday. This was a girl who many people regularly called a stupid idiot or worse. I told her that because I didn’t want to be mean, not because I actually believed what I was saying.

18 years later, I found her on FB and found out that she is now an oncologist. We talked and she told me that once I told her that I really believed that she could become a doctor, she went all in and didn’t stop until she got there. She says that I was the only person who encouraged her about this until she made it to college.

I think that was the best lie that I ever told.

There was this girl who went to my high school that was not very popular and was picked on a lot. She wasn't attractive and was just a social dud. There was a dance or something coming up, one of the ones that you get a big mum for your sweetheart for. Well, one of the ways that these kids decided to pick on her was to get her one of those mums as a "secret admirer" and send it to her, saying they'd reveal their identity to her at the thing.

I felt so mad and sorry for her that I showed up and I made myself that "secret admirer" and showed her a good date. She somehow found her confidence in life down the road, and ended up late blooming into a complete stunner. Maybe I contributed to that change in her outlook? Idunno. I'm happy for her and her husband.

Edit:

Thanks for the nice words yall. That girl was a kind person and didn't deserve a bad day like that. I guess karma paid off for me bigtime, because I married a different, but awesome woman, myself :).

My grandmother suffered from pretty serious dementia. She was regularly trying to evacuate the people from her assisted living facility, because of alien invasions.

One day my mom calls me, BEYOND her wit's end, because the assisted living facility is fed up and would love to evict my grandmother, but they can't get her calm enough to do so.

I think about it for a minute and I tell my mom to tell my grandmother that my sister, who worked for the government at the time, has negotiated with the aliens and they've agreed to leave us alone. My mother was horrified and wanted to be offended for a moment, stammered, and then said "hold on I'll call you back".

So my mom calls the assisted living facility and tells them to put my grandmother on the phone. She tells her what I told her to, and Grandma immediately calms down, tells everyone it's okay, the aliens have agreed to leave us alone, and never saw another alien invasion again...

I was buddies with my next door neighbor. He was always complaining. About work. About girls. He lived until 26 years old. I met his dad when he came to clean out his apartment. Dad and I hung out, and I told him some fun stories about his son. Before we parted, he put his hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eye, and said: “tell me...was he happy?” I looked him straight in the eye right back, smiled, and told a string of happy lies. “Yes! He was excited about his latest work assignment! He was kicking a*s playing squash at the gym! He had a crush on a new girl and was hopeful about her!” He smiled sadly and quietly said “Thank you.” Best lie ever.

I'm pretty skinny, and I had just moved to a new school. A kid who was overweight told me he wished he was skinny. I told him I used to be fat and that I started running, exercising, and being more careful about what I ate, and lost a ton of weight. He looked like he hadn't heard that kind of encouragement before. I moved away shortly after. Saw him a few years later on social media and he lost the weight and looked great!

Organized a party and invited a lot of people. My friend had been hanging out with a girl who was new in town, I invited her too.

He was, and still is, short, chubby, hairy, rarely the smartest in the room, but an unimaginably kind and nice human being. She was pretty and hanging out in a group where guys heavily outnumber girls, I though she was using him because he had a car, just to drive her around.

That day he asked me if I thought he had a chance if he made a move on her. Smelling the defeat already, I told him "absolutely dude". At least he would get rejected and be able to move on instead of orbiting her.

It worked though, and they are still together almost 8 years later...he still thanks me sometimes for helping him make up his mind...

This isn’t my lie, but my coworkers husband who suffered from what they thought was some type of dementia and MS.

Unfortunately, her husband developed severe memory issue at the age of 26 and lived only to 41. He was in and out of hospice, nursing homes and assisted living facilities. In one of the nursing homes, an elderly woman with severe dementia would not stop yelling, “Jesus! Is that you, Jesus?! Jesus, answer me! I know you’re there!” She’d do this for hours every day for weeks.

Nobody in the nursing home could console her or get her to stop. Finally, my coworkers husband had had enough.

Woman: “Jesus!! Oh, Jesus answer me!”

Him: “WHAT?!”

Woman: *long pause* “is that you, Jesus?”

Him: “yes! I hear you. Now go to sleep and stop yelling! You’re fine!”

The woman never yelled out again... it apparently took another dementia patient and my coworkers husband lying about being Jesus to solve the problem.

A friend wanted to become get into show biz. He was super corny though. I told him to keep pushing, and that I enjoyed watching his movies (that he wrote, directed, filmed with an iPhone, and starred in). They were cringey. But I think a passion should be pursued. He went all out though. Sold everything and moved to a big city in his barely working Honda Accord. for more opportunities.

A couple of years later he came back to visit. Picks me up in his Cadillac, takes me out to dinner. Gives me a nice watch and tells me I was the only person who ever told him to pursue his dreams. He doesn't act anymore except for occasional commercials, but now he has a small production company and a management company for new actors. I'm very proud of him and amazed that he made it.

Twelve years ago, I was talking to a girl at a bar. It became quickly clear that she bored the h**l out of me. I happened to see an acquaintance out of the corner of my eye. I called him over and introduced him to “my really interesting new friend.” Five years later they married. They remain happily married to this day.

That I was just going to my parents for the night.

I did not actually go to my parents. I went straight to the airport and flew several states away so I could dump him and he wouldn't be able to find me and then convince me to come back to him.

Haven't seen him in 6 years. His mom still tries to message me on Facebook to try to get me to go back to him.

Gave a fantastic reference for a former coworker, who was forced out of the company due to visa issues. Midway through the reference, I realized that they thought I had been his boss (his actual boss did not like him, and decided he was not worth the trouble on a visa)

He got the job and is doing very well at his new company, and he now has a work visa for the next 6 years.

I told a prospective employer that I made more than double what I actually did. I got hired on at that rate. It’s made a world of difference for my wife and girls.

I pranked my best friend once when she was sleeping at my house. I told her that, usually, two hot dudes with magic powers would come at night to get me and take me on adventures, but that because that night she was with me I wasn't quite sure they would come.

We were quite young and avid readers of fantasy books and the likes, so while at first she was just playing along, we talked so much about it and fantasised about the monster and the appearance of the guys that I have no doubt she ended up believing it just a bit.

So, as we went to sleep, I said (because I am a bad person) "man, I hope they don't wipe out your memories to maintain this a secret" and left her to worry.

Next morning she was like "You didn't have to worry, I remember everything!" and I looked at her in the eye and said, sadly:

"No you don't".

(Don't worry I eventually told her)

Well, fast forward about 10 years later, she is in the process of transforming the lie into a novel, and she even got a tattoo in her ankle with some symbols regarding some details I told her that night.

"No, I'm not sure what happened."

Carrying my best friends secrets, why he chose to end his life, is one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life.

Fourteen years ago in college, I lied to a friend that this guy liked her. And then I told the guy that my friend liked him. BAM! They started flirting heavily that night and now they’ve been happily married almost ten years.

ETA: WOW, this blew up! To answer questions, yes I confessed! I think I told the girl about a week later. Neither one minded and they thought it was funny. On the night of the lies, I talked to the girl first; if she had said she wasn’t interested, I never would have talked to the guy about her. Looking back, I took a huge risk because I didn’t know either of them very well, but we were all drunk and it seemed like a brilliant idea at the time.

It is a little like Much Ado, one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. I had actually just finished a huge term paper on why Beatrice and Benedick were a superior couple to Hero and Claudio so it’s entirely possible that I came up with the idea from that.

That they should apply for this job they really wanted, even though they were underqualified for the position. I didn't really think they had a chance, but I said I did and apparently that encouragement was enough to get her to apply and she eventually ended up getting the job.

When we were kids, i used to watch the animated Batman series with my little sister after school. One day I casually mentioned that I created Batman, and she got very excited. She told her first grade class at school the next day, and the teacher told her that wasn't true.

She didn't believe anything I told her for awhile. She's 30 now and I still get "this isn't another I invented Batman thing, is it?" when I tell her things.

It won't impact her until someone finally calls her out on it, but I told my sister that futons were invented by a native South American tribe called the Futoni, and she's been sharing this "fact" with everyone.

Both of my kids, 25 and 16, think that I don't believe in owls.

I didn't tell the lie, it happened to me.

Sr. Year of high school, young, stupid... you know the drill. I had become really close with a life long friend (call her Sara), she had grown into quite the beautiful young woman. We spent non stop time together. I was planning to ask her out because all the signs were there, we were at a corn maze, it was going to happen I could feel it. I talked to our mutual friend, her best friend, let's call her Meg. She told me not to, that we were just close friends and it would ruin everything. So... I didn't.

It put a serious damper on things and our friendship kinda waivered. Then college hit and we really lost touch, have probably talked twice in the last 10 years.

Meg admitted 5 or 6 years after college that she lied in high school, that she had a crush on me and didn't want me to date Sara. But that Sara actually had a massive crush on me and Meg told her I didn't like her that way. So both Sara and I started acting cold to each other because of Meg....

I always wondered what would have happened had we changed that one night. Maybe we would have stayed closer, but then again maybe it would have changed things and i would never have met my wife...