“In 415 BCE, the Athenian statesman Alcibiades was convinced that conquering Sicily would win the Peloponnesian War. The prudent general Nicias considered the idea rash and chose to deal with it by telling him a lie. He greatly overestimated how many men would be required, thinking it would dissuade Alcibiades. But the lie backfired. The Athenians took Nicias’s word and sent nearly the entire army to Sicily, when a guerrilla tactic would probably have been far more effective. Nearly everybody died. The only survivors were the deserters, and not surprisingly Alcibiades was among them. Many blame Alcibiades for his arrogance, but Nicias was just as much at fault. He didn’t take into account the personality of the man he was lying to, nor did he predict how his lie would be received, both of which were more important factors than the lie itself. Had Nicias conquered Sicily, his bluff would likely have been forgotten or gone undetected, but his lie was sloppy, and despite his good intentions it makes him responsible for thousands of needless deaths.” Gupta pauses to look at all of our faces before his eyes fall on someone. “Felix, come up to the front, please.”

Felix stands and makes his way to the end of the table.

“I would like you to tell the class two truths and a lie. Keep them short. I don’t want you making it easy on them by giving too many details. And try your best to conceal your lie.”

Felix takes a deep breath. “I’ve broken seven bones, eight if I count my nose twice. I would prefer to be hot rather than to be cold. And I can hold my breath underwater for nine minutes and thirteen seconds.” I study him for any of the lying tells I’ve been reading about. But he doesn’t make any hand movements or weird facial expressions that I can detect, and his voice sounds steady and normal to me.

“Now, which was the lie?” Gupta asks. “Jaya?”

Jaya’s eyes are narrowed, like she’s concentrating too hard. “The first one?”

“I know you’re not confident in your answer by the way your pitch raised at the end of your sentence. You sounded like you were asking a question instead of giving an answer,” Gupta says, and I feel some relief that Felix’s lie wasn’t so easy to detect that everyone but me spotted it.

“Does anyone disagree with Jaya’s assessment?” Gupta continues.

The room falls silent for a beat.

Just when I think no one is going to answer, Ash says, “The lie was his second statement.”

Gupta smiles. “Explain, please, Ashai.”