Boy Scout Troop 325
Scoutmaster Minute
Fish Stories
September 20, 2005
Larry Polyak, Scoutmaster

After our fishing trip this last Sunday, I heard some of you guys talking about how the sizes of the fish you caught would grow, so that by the time you got to school on Monday, you'd be holding your hands out this wide saying that you caught some huge fish. We call this a fish story. Another variation is "the one that got away" when you tell people you snagged a huge fish but of course it got away before you actually caught it and could prove it.

There's no harm in telling fish stories, in fact it's kind of fun and people almost expect it. That's partly what makes it fun.

But some people tell fish stories all the time. In this case, they aren't funny, they are just lies. Telling lies can become a habit. Sometime you have to tell one lie to cover up another one. Some people tell so many lies that they hardly know what the truth is any more.

I looked up some statistics about lying and found them very alarming. One doctor did a study. He found that by the age of 3, two-thirds of kids have learned to lie. By age 7, up to 98% lie. Another report said that that Americans lie about everything -- and usually for no good reason. It also said that two thirds of Americans today believe that there is nothing wrong with telling a lie. Only 31% of us believe that honesty is the best policy. In fact, Business News magazine reported recently, "People feel like suckers if they're honest." That's really sad.

I hope that everyone here is in that 31% who believe in honesty. Personally I have had my own business for 20 years now. I have had the same business partner all that time. Early on, we both decided that we would never lie to each other or to our clients. To be honest, it hasn't been easy. On occasion, we've had to remind each other about this policy. But through the years we have found over and over again that telling the truth is absolutely the best thing to do. I also tell people who work for me that it's ok to make mistakes but if you do, tell me. Don't lie about it or try to cover it up.

A Scout is trustworthy. I believe that. And I hope you do too.

Thanks for listening.