A genie offers you the ability to make $50 USD every time you tell someone a lie. The $50 is deposited to your bank account, inflation adjusts, is post tax, and you can do anything you’d like with it.
However, you can no longer earn income in any other way, including interest. Lying is the only way you can make money – even if you have a job, the money will not hit your bank account.
A lie will count if:
- it’s spoken to a person who can comprehend it (typing online does not count, talking at a baby does not count)
- it’s completely untrue. A half truth or lie by omission does not count. For example, if you ate an apple and a banana for breakfast, saying “I had an apple for breakfast” does not count as it is technically true, but saying “I only had an apple” or “I had an orange” would count.
- the person does not react in a way that suggests they believe you lied. Mental/internal suspicion is fine, but if there is any outward pushback, disbelief or doubt, including facial expressions, you will not get $50. Eventual call outs are allowed – the $50 only goes away if there is an immediate response to your lie.
You cannot purposefully admit it’s a lie after the fact.
Would you take the deal? Why or why not?
Edit: Since everyone would take it at it’s current parameters, would you do it if you must lie to someone you personally know?
Comments
Copy of the original post in case of edits: A genie offers you the ability to make $50 USD every time you tell someone a lie. The $50 is deposited to your bank account, inflation adjusts, is post tax, and you can do anything you’d like with it.
However, you can no longer earn income in any other way, including interest. Lying is the only way you can make money – even if you have a job, the money will not hit your bank account.
A lie will count if:
You cannot purposefully admit it’s a lie after the fact.
Would you take the deal? Why or why not?
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Talk to a retail worker for $50
Note that “spoken loudly or even audibly” is not explicitly required.
Yeah I easily take this. You could make hundreds a day by just walking up to random people and telling them something random.
HAHAHAHAHAHA. To walmart casheer-“I loooooooove dragon fruit” and 15000 other small lies I can think of. Free money please
Move to a city
Walk the street and spend an hour every day telling people lots of innocuous untruths “i had an orange for breakfast” “there was a fire alarm pulled in my apartment building yesterday afternoon it was super annoying” “I went to the gym yesterday to work out, you guys should do that too” etc
If I tell 20 successful lies in an hour that’s $1,000, and if I do that 200 days a year that’s a fantastic salary.
Where do I sign up?
(One question: what happens in future years given inflation?)
HAH, easily. The only reason I have a house is due to being able to lie well.
Politicians would be even more out of control
If in a conversation with someone and I tell like ten lies, each building on the previous lie and then I overstep to the point that they call into question the entire facade, will I still get paid for them having believed the previous nine lies for any length of time?
Based on the rules, I could walk down a busy street and tell every person I see “I ate oatmeal for breakfast!”
There’s no reason to doubt I did. I could even just live my daily life with the normal people I interact with and do this. I’d only need to tell 5 people a false breakfast to make more money than I currently do during a workday.
Lying to six people a day every day about what I had for breakfast would net me a six figure income. It hurts nobody, it’s a little eccentric as far as income goes, it feels like a no brainer deal.
I think there would need to be harsher parameters. Severity of the lie, limited to close relationships, or severely reduce the income. As is, I would take this in a heartbeat to greatly improve my quality of life.
Id carry some cheap item with me, and when I pass someone I’d be like:
“Oh, sir, I just found this, did you drop it?”
I did not really just find it, so I get $50.
Or work from home, call a bunch of numbers where I need to give my name, say the wrong name, then hang up shortly after
“I’m fine” once a day would replace my current job.
Become a televangelist or politician.
Yes so long as I could repeat the same set of lies until they are called out.
No. I’m really bad at lying; I’d starve in a month or two.
I could go to a rally of one of the political parties and voice my support for all of their policies and tell everybody what a good job I think they are doing. I could be set for life after a few rallies.
No, in my circumstances right now I would not take it. I really don’t deal with people. I stay in my apartment almost all day every day by myself. If you would’ve allowed typing then I do enough via things like Reddit that I might’ve been able to have a nice little side hustle.
But I don’t have enough spoons to be dealing with all that crap. Not to mention I generally try to avoid lying except for when is absolutely necessary. That is a personal belief but autistic line of thinking also tends to have me more truthful than I should be
Probably worth it, yeah. “I slept 8 hours tonight” when I slept 9, I had X for breakfast when I had Y, there are a ton of lies that would be pretty much impossible to call you out on and that people wouldn’t care too much about even if they did, even if they go “huh, I thought I saw you eating X”, you could say you might have misremembered or something like that.
Or you can start talking about sports more and say you are a fan of a team you don’t really care much about, or mention your favorite song/artist is X when X is actually your second favorite and your favorite is Y, or even if X is just one you sort of like but far from your favorite.
So many mundane lies you could fit into regular conversation that no one would likely ever question.
Incredibly easy. Have to live in a city. Go to the airport. Spend a day introducing yourself to people. Just say, “Hi, I’m Jim.” Can probably talk to about a hundred people in under an hour easily, so a six hour workday would net you about $30,000.
Is this how Donald Trump got rich?
I inadvertently lie all the time. Example:
“What time is it?
“4:15.”
Actually it’s 4:13…
It’s a round, an estimate, but the exact number? No. Lies.
I lie to the customers all day when they ask how I’m doing, and never have I been called out. Easy money.
This is the easiest money ever, just go around making small talk with people and say random stuff
Go to a heavily populated city with busy sidewalks and walk around saying “hi, I’m tom.” In a busy place like new York, no one’s even gonna respond.
Work in service and tell everyone you are happy to help.
If I announce it at a party say 100 people. Does it count…or does it have to be singular people everytime? Let’s say I’m at a dinner and say I’m glad you’re all here. I know there’s a few people I’d rather not see. Just a hypothetical.
Yeah I’d take it, I already lie for fun to retail workers, hair dressers and literally anyone else I have small talk with where there’s no consequence.
I’m taking this deal and hiring a personal assistant whose only job is to keep me company as I tell her hundreds of random lies a day. I’ll pay them $200k/yr, a salary so rich they’d likely never jeopardize it by confronting me over some inconsequential lie they may privately suspect.
Sounds like a great deal. I’d just hand out compliments more than I do, but not to obviously vulnerable people.
I don’t mind telling someone genetically blessed that teal is their color, when it actually just highlights their veins. Or “I like your shoes”.
I DON’T like your shoes!
We hates them.
Do I get to keep my job? I’ll just start lying over there. I could easily tell three lies per hour
Could easily tell 100 lies a day for 100k+ a month
I try not to lie, but there’s definitely convenient lies that are told all the time. “How are you today” “I’m good, you?” Nobody wants to hear “Yea, just super depressed, another Wednesday, mirite?”
I guess I could make a decent amount of money just socializing with people I don’t know.
Absolutely.
Yes. At the risk of sounding like a sociopath, I’m a VERY good liar.
No, I don’t think I’ll take the deal.
I’ll take my first $50 now please.
that’s just a touch over 4 lies per day to make my current income, but i think i could average 6-8 lies per day and almost double my money
Just go to a random city, sit down at the bar, and start chatting with a bartender. You can tell all the following and there’s no reason to question you. The less detail the better on all these.
The key is also to build off what they say without agreeing with them every time. For instance if they say they love the Beatles, mention you like them but you really get down on The Rolling Stones.
Go all over the place and once you get the act down, research a bit about anything that is verifiable, like when albums came out, landmarks in certain cities, and then bam, you’re a traveling grifter.
Easy. I just keep telling people what time it is, but off by a minute.
Everytime someone says , hey how are you? My finger hurts… it doesn’t.
I lie to myself all day long. Yes it’s spoken out loud and no I don’t suspect I’m lying until my clothes no longer fit or I realize I spent all my money on a new hobby that I’ll never fully explore but will undoubtedly be the thing that makes me rich.
Wait, so if I tell one lie to a real life group 10 people, and nobody calls me out on it, does that count as 50, or 500?
“Good morning!” – $50
“Have a great day!” – $50
“Happy to help!” – $50
“No no, I don’t mind” – $50
“Nah that sounds like a reasonable idea actually” – $50
“Interesting!” – $50
I’d be making AT LEAST $300 a day, probably double or triple that because I work in IT.
Yeah, my job will be buying things from shops and talking completely friendly anecdotal lies with the cashiers.
Oh this? I’m preparing for a party on the weekend. (lie) I wanted to try baked and mashed pumpkin strudel (I’m buying a different vegetable) (lie). I’m getting these sweets for my little cousins (lol no for me, lie) etc etc
Oh absolutely. I lie to those I love constantly. I could probably clear 300K a year easily without even changing my current behavior, and it would take very little effort to double that. So yes. In a heartbeat.
Yes. I already have friends we still like and trust with important things who we know lie about all sorts of stupid sit. So to get $50 every time for saying lies about things that don’t matter, easy.
Is it $50 per lie or $50 per person lied to? If I tell a lie to a room full of people do I get $50 per person?
I will be rich in no time
It would be easy to tell very small innocuous lies, the sort that wouldn’t have any negative effects and that no one would even think to question and I’d certainly make more than I currently do….but saying I can’t ever earn money any other way ..well it cuts me off from hope, I don’t think I could take it.
Tell people I’m one year older than I am
No chance. People who lie are capable of committing any form of negative act. Life is much better without lying – I’m much more conscious of my behaviour.
So telling lies on Tiktok would make me a millionaire?
Easy money with no down side
I would absolutely take it. Even if it’s to people I personally know. Like others have pointed out, the thing that makes this hypothetical an instant accept is that there’s no rules on how severe the lie has to be. I can literally just tell the people I know that I didn’t have breakfast that morning when I did, or about a million other small lies that don’t affect anything. “My favorite bra broke today.” (It didn’t, but I want an excuse to buy a new one.) “I saw a bird carrying a fish while I was walking by the river yesterday.” (I didn’t, I was actually walking by the golf course.) I started rewatching Avatar today.” (No, but I plan to tomorrow.) “The cat stepped on my keyboard while I was playing a game and lost the match for me.” (Didn’t happen, I was watching YouTube videos.) None of those would affect anything in my relationships.
Easy take. Just go to stores and respond back to the employee when they ask how you are with a lie. Doing good that day? Well no you’re not, you’ve had better. You rolled your ankle earlier in the day. Hurt like heck, but it’ll be fine, you’re about to head right home and ice it and be fine before dinner with your family.
That right there is basically 8 lies and no one would bat an eye at it.
Can I make money in other ways along as the account it goes to isn’t mine, maybe a charity? Maybe a corporate account….
I could just play trouble in terrorist town for a job
Easy.
“How was your workout?”
“Great! I biked for 45 minutes” (I really biked for 44)
“How are you?”
“Good!” (we all already do this)
“How did you sleep last night?”
“My usual, I got 30 minutes of deep sleep” (I really got 32)
There’s so many little white lies that you can easily tell daily without issue, even with family and friends.
Not to mention more hardcore lies that you can tell random strangers, such as a fake name or age and so forth.
Go out and buy a bunch of $50 gift cards and head to the nearest college campus.
Go up to students and say, “Hi, I’m (fake name) from (fake non-profit) and we’re trying to raise awareness on (random issue). If you listen to our (fake) story for 5 minutes, I’ll give you a $50 gift card!”
Easily can make $1000 per person.
How are you?
Great!
Ka-ching
To the cashier: “yes, I do want yet another delicious Taco Bell taco.”
They won’t think I’m lying. They will think I’m insane, especially after they see me throw a taco in the trash for the 10th time that day.
So, to make my current salary from one job, that’s 10 lies a week. 5 for the other. So for just about 3 lies a day, I can not work.
I really like iced coffee. I can go to my least favorite coffee place every morning and lie about how I slept the night before, possibly even what I have planned for the day. Or I could make up a dream from the night before, or an ailment for which I need caffeine. Doesn’t matter, just 2 lies. I can drive past the homeless camp and give them a free coffee. Then I can drive to the one I like, and repeat. And that’s an additional post-tax $18,200 per year, on top of what I make now working 2 jobs. Plus I have brightened the day of a less fortunate soul, daily.
Sign me UP!
Every time someone asks how are you? I’ll keep saying, I’m fine or living the dream and eventually, I will be fine.
I’ll just go about my day complimenting people and talking about my non-existent cat.
Hey wife, I’m going to blatantly lie to you constantly and I just need you to not react. We’re going to be rich.
I cant. I never wanted to be a politician
Accept. There’s so many easy lies you can tell that are basically nothing. ESPECIALLY compliments. Walking by strangers and giving insincere compliments. “I love your hair! That shirt is so cute! You have a great smile!” Fully not believing any of that shit but saying it just to be nice and bank $50.
To your friends, “I woke up at 7:30” when you get up at 7:37. “I feel like I need to sneeze” when you don’t. Saying you have an itch you don’t have.
Showing strangers pics of your pets and lying about their names. Things like that.
Twenty lies a day puts you in the top 5% of earners in most places.
You can even post an ad, offering to talk to someone for twenty minutes for $100. And just lie nonstop, but about silly things like a trip to Mexico you never took.
Nope, I don’t like to talk to people face to face.
Everyone lies.
I’d do it easy.
Time to grind being an influencer so 1 lie is to 1000 people
I’m ’bout to be riach biatch.
I might actually just keep my job for a few months, I feel like I can lie a lot more here, and get away with it, and not feel bad about it. I could try to bank up a bit, to have a comfortable cushion of money. Then just go to the day to day lying to maintain.
My name is “not my name” as I speak to many people on the street.
Absolutely. There are so many mundane things I could lie about and not be caught. And also, there is no penalty for telling the lie if I am caught.
I don’t socialize with enough people in “real life” to be able to live off that as my sole income.
I guess I could go big once a week with a TON of little lies……that might work…
Easy. Spray fart in a can on my clothes and walk through a crowd telling everyone around me I farted. Quick believable lie to rake in the cash. Probably don’t even need the spray but that’s just for funsies.
Random person in the parking lot 20 times a day: “I used to have a car like that, I loved it!”
Are you kidding me?! I could talk about the volume of my poops, the scent of my farts, the color of underwear , or my favorite flavor of soda. All day. Everyday.
I could just stand on the street corner of a busy city and scream obvious lies about crazy stuff to hundreds of people a minute. Maybe some would react in a way that doesn’t give me money, but most would flat out ignore me. I could do this one day a year and make enough to live very comfortably.
Dude, I lie to my mom all the time…challenge accepted
Lawyers would take a serious pay cut here.
Two problems: the first is you didn’t say that I couldn’t let the person in on it. The second is you mentioned that it only counts if I’m called out on it.
In the first case the answer is trivial, so I’ll ignore that one.
So even without the first, I post a sign in a Subway that says 1 + 1 =?. As fast as I can I call out any number other than two repeatedly while looking at someone. Every single number I call is a separate lie. I can guarantee you in a subway nobody is going to call me out on that. They’re just going to avoid me. I figure I can make about $3,000 an hour this way.
Did you happen to offer this to anyone else previously, like specifically in 2016 or 2024?
Just tell my wife “I farted” 50 times a day.
I’m so bad at lying. I literally wouldn’t be able to make money
I will build the wall and make mexico pay for it. I am a billionaire self funding my own campaign so I am not beholden to special interests. Won’t you buy my campaign crap?
You didn’t even limit it to one lie per person. I am just going to buy groceries and say this is my favorite product to every single thing. Boom 1-2k. Honestly I could probably make a year’s worth of my original salary in a day.
Yes easy bet
I don’t even need to read past the caption.
No. I’d be homeless, it wouldn’t be enough. Then to not be homeless I’d have to pretend I was crazy. It’s a dark hole, I’ll pass
Just go around introducing yourself by a fake name to strangers.
I could just sit around at home and rack up money talking to my wife and kids. “My shoulder is itchy.” “I’m tired.” “I can’t find the remote.” “No, I didn’t kill that hooker.”
Too easy.
Super easy.
People don’t believe me when I say I only eat breakfast. I’ll just tell people what I ate for dinner last night (literally I could say anything) and they would believe me. No one would call me out on it.
Yes I’ll take the deal. Tell the wife about it and then lie to her 100 times per day and have her not react. Making bank 🙂.
Go to therapy and say insane shit for one hour 3 times per week. I could probably say at least 30 lies in made up stories for an hour.
Be a greeter somewhere and make bank telling everyone it’s a beautiful day and you’re happy to assist them.
No. Lying is one of the worst sins in the world.
“I have a small penis” to any rando that passes by.
Follow up question: does sarcasm count? Technically my words are a lie and the only thing potentially giving it away is tone… if we’re going straightforward lies only, I’m voting the same as everyone else, talk to a customer service worker about some vacation I’ve “just come back from” or something. If I can tell them about the situation ahead of time, I’d lie to someone I care about in simple situations like given in the explanation. “What’d you have for lunch?” “A sandwich”
I’m 5′ and like 11.75″. I can tell people I’m six foot tall all day and make bank.
Just program an AI to ask you a stream of rapid fire questions where the answer is always “yes.” Then run it and just tap the N and O keys until you’re a millionaire.
I would just tell everyone that I woke up 06:30AM
Is this what trump is doing right now?
what the fuck do you think reddit is? of course I’m taking it.
Just compliment strangers on the cloths you don’t like….”where did you get that shirt, I love it”…..
No. I’m a terrible liar. I’d be even more poor than I already am, haha.
Lmao yeah I’m really good at lying
Absolutely.
Yes, because why not, and lying to people I personally know would be the best part about it.
I’m just going to tell completely innocuous lies all the time. I don’t even need to quit my job
Walk up to every random person on the street.
“Hello, my name is lie. I’m looking for the nearest lie. Could you point me in that direction?
Thank you I hope you have a wonderful day (also a lie.)”
That’s $150 for a 20 second interaction. You could easily do it 100 times a day and that’s $15,000. Take a few days off, do it again. Even once a month you are making $180K tax free..
So… I’d be a politician? No, thank you. Those guys suck.
This is way too easy. I would just lie about things nobody cares about.
“How’s your day going?”
“Not great. I almost broke my tooth on a hard piece of plastic in my cereal”
or if I’m ordering my coffee I’ll act like I’m changing things up
“You know what? I never do this but I’m going to try almond milk today instead of my usual cream. Oh and…never mind. I’ll pass on the donut today. I had 2 yesterday. I think I should skip a day”
That’s $100 easy just getting coffee.
Maybe I’ll call out of work too
“Hey I can’t come in today I’m feeling sick. Yeah I think I got it from my son”
Another $100
Easy. Instant money when someone says “hi how are you?” And I say “good thanks”
I will have $0 but I know some people who will become wealthier than Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Go on any multiplayer game with voip and just start bullshitting
See you in 18 months when I retire
With the edit of people I personally know, no. I have a few friends and family members and acquaintances, but I’m an introvert and I work remotely. I can go days without speaking to anyone with the exception of my boyfriend, who I speak with every day. But lying to him at least 4 times per day would be a nightmare. The guilt would eat me alive. The paranoia. I would lie about going to work, hang out at my apartment all day, lie about how my day went. Make up stories about how Barbara never answers my emails. Idk. But I’d always every single day worry about him finding out some how. And what if we moved in with each other?? No way
But I guess I could regular a few stores everyday and become acquaintances with them and just jump between them and make lies. But as it is now – no way
If someone has kids though they are so golden
This is so easy. You could literally strike up small talk with any stranger, and lie about trivial, mundane things, and they won’t call you out because they have no reason to doubt you. “Hey, my name is Joe, I’m from Buffalo, though I’m originally from the West Coast. I’m a bank teller.” That’s $200 in less than 30 seconds.
Better yet, just go to AA meetings. “Hi, I’m Joe, and I’m an alcoholic”. Because of how the prompt is worded, that’s $100 PER PERSON IN ATTENDANCE.
Absolutely. That’s 20 lies for a thousand dollars. 50 lies a day for a month is $75,000. In extremis I could go around some city somewhere and introduce myself to strangers as “John” and make a request for them to take my photo. Spend 8 hours doing that at an average rate of about 30 per hour and that’s $12,000 right there. I’d make a profit even if people ran off with my phone once an hour
It wouldn’t work if it was only people you knew. They would know you were full of shit pretty quickly
Even with the “personally known” parameter this is too easy.
Invite friends to a cocktail or something, tell them to invite some friends, make acquaintances during the first hour and propose a toast to get everyone’s attention.
10 lies can quickly be squeezed in a small speech, a small invented story should do. And with only 10 persons that’s already 5000$ just during the speech.
Meet more people, get a bigger house, make garden parties everyday during summer. Meet most of the town citizens.
Get elected as a mayor, meet every citizen of the city, create events every week-end, tastings, lottery, balls or whatever…
Every-time with a spicy speech, make hundred of thousands per week.
Develop an app, and invite all the city to download it to make money (accept only people from a whitelist of known citizen).
The app is simple, it’s a video of a little speech with a code in it, at the end of the video there is an input to enter the code, pay 50$ to everyone who listened to your speech.
With 1000 known people, 10 videos a day with 10 lies, that should be about 5 millions $ per day.
About 2 billions per year.
Should we keep going?
I’d be fine with it. I’m disabled. $974 a month ain’t shit to lose. Lol.
So, every time somebody asks me how I’m doing, and I say I’m fine, I get paid for it? $$$
This would be easy. I’d just tell Randos that I love trump. Easy
Based on the rules, I tell my wife a genie will give me $50 for every lie I tell where the person I tell it to doesn’t react in a way that would indicate I lied. She wouldn’t believe me, of course, but I’d convince her to just go with it for a minute and not react (rules state that it only doesn’t work if they react or call me out, they can believe it’s a lie all they want). The only stipulation was not telling them it was a lie after, not before. I’d tell like 10 stupid lies, (sky is purple, I’m a little baby, I’m a girl, etc). Then show her the $500 in the bank account.
From then on, we quit our jobs, and everytime we need money, I just tell dumb lies to her for a few minutes.
Deal! 50 a day just from family when I tell them I only had one or two beers instead of three or four.
This is simple.
I stare in the mirror and tell myself lies with a straight face.
I‘m a person, so that counts.
The rules allow phone calls. I’d just call up from a private number to people that are going to want to keep you on the phone. Real estate agents, recruiters sales people etc.
“Hi, I’m Tom” +50
“I’m interesting in buying X, do you stock them?” +50
“I’ve done a bit of research on Y, what do you think of it?” +50
“I live out in X, so it’s a bit of a drive to you (+50) but I was thinking I’d head out on Friday (+50) Actually I’ve got an appointment then (+50). I couldn’t see online whether you are open Saturdays (+50).”
“Great I’ll see you Saturday (+50)”
$400 for wasting 2 minutes of someone’s time.
I sell cars. Id make more money than my commission.