STORY: Truthfullness by Paula Philips

Story title: Truthfullness
by: Paula Philips


      A group of young school teachers were taking a routine efficiency test. When they came to Part Three, they found a long list of book titles and authors. The directions said:" Check off the books you have read."
       When the examiners later checked the papers. they found that one third of the teacher had checked almost every book on the list. Some checked every one.

This had nothing to do with proving that the teachers were well read. It only proved that many of them were liars, because 25 of the 50 books listed did not even exist. They had been invented by the examiners as a means of checking both the truthfulness and efficiency of the teachers.