If a liar tells truth, his truth is taken as lie. In like manner, when a truthful person lies, his lie is taken as truth. A shining example of the latter is the partial lie uttered by Dharma-Raj (king of righteousness) Yuddhishttira on Kurukshetra battle field as described in the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata and its consequence on the outcome of the Kurukshetra war.
In the thick of battle and as planned earlier, Yuddhishttira suddenly announced: 'Nare (man) va gunjare (elephant) Ashwatthama hatah' (Man or elephant, Ashwatthama is dead). Yuddhishttira is supposed to have spoken the word 'Nare' loudly so that it could be heard up to a long distance, where as 'gunjare' was spoken feebly making it audible only to people near-by. On hearing these words, coming from the mouth of an established truthful man such as Yuddhishttira, Dronacharya assumed that his son Ashwatthama is dead (In fact, it was the elephant by the same name as Ashwatthama that was killed- killed by Bhima.) and he gave up fighting in despondency. As per the pre-planned strategy laid by Purushottama (perfect man) Vasudeva Krishna, Dhrishtadyumna took the opportunity to murder Dronacharya cold-blooded.
