I remember when travelling to Thailand reading in the tour guides that you have to be careful because the Thai are very keen on "saving face". If you ask a local for directions, they will give you wrong directions if they don't know the way rather than admitting that they just don't know.
Reminds me of why i don't like sitcoms. Because the joke all too often is about one or more people that can't admit fault and so end up dragging a issue along while the excuses etc snowballs.
