When I was younger, so much younger than today...
I had a lovely pair of Caterpillar boots. They were my pride and joy, one of the few items of clothing I ever got any positive comments about. They went over hills and valleys. They went round Europe with me. They were fantastic.
Being a boarding school pupil, these boots were kept on a little shelf below my workspace (those under the age of 16 were allocated a desk/set of drawers in a massive room downstairs in one of the boarding houses, where you were expected to do all your homework). One terrible evening, I rummaged under the desk to find that the boots had gone! 
Deeply upset, I turned the school upside down, to no avail. Now, in the same boarding house as me there was an older chap (let's call him Percy Plonker) who, in an uncharacteristically sympathetic moment, sought me out to tell me he thought that the theft of my boots was disgusting. "They should be shot!", he may have proclaimed. What he didn't know though was that most of the rest of the house had sought me out to grass him up! He'd taken them, to impress a girl.
I think that was my first memorable experience of shameless, bare-faced lying. It's something I have to thank Percy for though, because now when governments and people in power do it to me I can cope a lot better! 
