Little White Lie

A friend of mine was pulled over and given a traffic ticket for running a stop sign. She plans on fighting the ticket, hoping that the officer won't show up, thereby leading to a dismissal of the ticket.

Guilty or not, there is nothing wrong with fighting a ticket. Begging for mercy from the judge or cop, striking a plea for reduced points, or hoping for an outright dismissal is part of the system. But outright lying?

Y'see, my friend plans on getting her boyfriend to come to court and testify, if needed, that she didn't run a stop sign. Of course, he'll mean the stop sign on the way to court, when everyone knows that the testimony is about the ticket. Forget kedoshim tihiyu, v'asisa hatov v'hayashar, tzedek umishpat, etc. Assume the parties aren't Jewish. What do you think of that?

Granted, its a little white lie. But a little white lie is worse. Important situation, lie is required, ok. Our default position should be telling the truth. If you're willing to lie for such a small thing, what value truth?

Not much.

And that's bad.