History ExactWords / Literature

** Similarly, while in the household of "mud men," a fairy is compelled to obey their orders. However, these orders must be phrased exactly, saying stuff like "You really shouldn't do such-and-such" won't stop them from doing it, you have to actually say "don't do it" or "you may not." This is something that the kidnapped Holly Short uses to her advantage.

** Works both ways with Arya Stark and Jaqen H'ghar -- the latter claims that he only offered three deaths, no more and no less and certainly not ''help'', so Arya [[LoopholeAbuse takes advantage of Jaqen not specifying that ''he himself'' can't be one of those deaths]] to coerce him to help her free the Northern prisoners in the dungeon[[note]]which would take multiple deaths[[/note]].

** ''Literature/TheWayOfKings'': Prince Renarin is being tormented by [[DeadpanSnarker Wit]]:

* ''Literature/{{Eludes}}'': From [[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/67742/elydes/chapter/1252258/chapter-48-silvertongue Chapter 48]]: Kai wants to keep his little sister Kea out of trouble, so he badgers a local hunter, Moui, into taking her on as an apprentice. Moui has a condition, though, wanting to know if she's as annoying as Kai is. Kai pauses, then promises that "my sister is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. I’ve never known someone as kind and patient as she is,” which is an accurate description of his ''other'' sister.

* ''[[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/67742/elydes/ Elydes]]'': Kai wants to keep his little sister Kea out of trouble, so he badgers a local hunter, Moui, into taking her on as an apprentice. Moui has a condition, though, wanting to know if she's as annoying as Kai is. Kai pauses, then promises that "my sister is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. I’ve never known someone as kind and patient as she is,” which is an accurate description of his ''other'' sister.

* In ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', Wonka shows his guests his Square Candies That Look Round, which are hard candies with funny faces painted on them in a small room with a glass door. But they look square. When told this, he says they ''are'' square. But they ''look'' square, not round! Wonka insists they ''look'' round! After a few minutes of arguing, Wonka opens the door, and the candies turn round to look at who's coming in. (They're square candies, and they're looking round.)

* In Creator/JackLondon's ''Literature/TheSeaWolf'', Wolf Larsen promises the protagonist "not to lay a finger" on two sailors he previously threatened with death. So what does he do? When they are shipwrecked and trying to escape, he lets them drown.

* ''Literature/SwansBraidAndOtherTalesOfTerizan'': Essien promises that anything inside the treasure vault is Terizan's if she retrieves the royal regalia. [[spoiler:There is nothing else. She uses this to rescue his brother Jameel, whom he orders killed however, as she brought him out with her from the vault.]]

* In Cassandra Clare's ''Literature/TheLastHours'' trilogy, Cordelia makes Lilith promise to free her once Belial has received the third and final blow from her sword, Cortona. Note she never said it had to be her who delivers the blow.]]

* & Q plays this trick on the Grand Nagus in the novel ''I, Q''. He challenges the Nagus that he will say a number that the Nagus thinks of, and if he can't, he'll be the Nagus' servant. After Q guesses, the Nagus tells him the number he's thinking of, and after an... [[Film/ThePrincessBride overly familiar retort]], Q says that number. He never did say just ''when'' he'd say the number the Nagus was thinking of...

** ''Literature/TheMurderOfRogerAkroyd'' is filled with this as [[spoiler: the narrator manages to truthfully describe his discovery of the body and involvement in the murder investigation, while concealing the fact ''he did it''.]]

* Q plays this trick on the Grand Nagus in the Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse novel ''I, Q''. He challenges the Nagus that he will say a number that the Nagus thinks of, and if he can't, he'll be the Nagus' servant. After Q guesses, the Nagus tells him the number he's thinking of, and after an... [[Film/ThePrincessBride overly familiar retort]], Q says that number. He never did say just ''when'' he'd say the number the Nagus was thinking of...

* Done by the narrator in the ''Literature/StarTrekTheFall'' novel ''The Crimson Shadow'', which introduces the Cardassian character Rakhat Blok by saying that if any one asked him, which they didn't, he would have told them he was born on a client world of the Union... and so on for three paragraphs of exposition, [[spoiler:all of which is what he would ''say'', not the truth.]]

* In Creator/AmbroseBierce's ''One Kind of Officer'', a captain tells a lieutenant "it is not permitted to you to know ''anything,''" having received a similar insulting order from his general and wanting to take it out on a subordinate. [[LaserGuidedKarma He comes to regret this.]]

* In the Creator/RobertLudlum novels ''The Road to Gandolfo'' and ''The Road to Omaha'', General Mackenzie Hawkins prides himself on never lying. But various characters learn the hard way that while that may be true, Hawkins has a bad habit of leaving out certain details...

* One of the short stories in ''[[Literature/{{Weenies}} Land Of The Lawn Weenies]]'' uses this... the main characters are cursed by a little girl who tells them to beware what they say -- it'll come true. And, well... let's just say they quickly learn that slang should ''not'' be said idly, and that there is a ''huge'' difference between "I am holding a baseball" and [[BodyHorror "There's a baseball in my hand."]]

* Creator/MollieHunter's novel, ''A Stranger Came Ashore'', has a character named Finn Learson, a TallDarkAndHandsome young man who turns out to be the Great Selkie, lord of all the other selkies. After he comes ashore following a shipwreck, he leads everyone to believe that he was a member of the ship's crew who survived because he was a good swimmer, but after protagonist Robbie realises Finn's true identity, he looks back on the conversation and realises that Finn's answers to others' questions were intended to create the impression that he was part of the crew without ever explicitly ''saying'' that he was, such as referring to the wreck as "the ship" rather than "my ship".

* This is a major subplot of ''The Dream-Maker's Magic''. Mrs Carmichael desperately wants a son and is insistent that she gave birth to one. She takes her daughter Kellen to a [[CannotTellALie Truth-Teller]], begging her to confirm that Kellen was born a boy. The Truth-Teller, sneering at her foolishness, confirms that Kellen was 'a girl in the womb'. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, Mrs Carmichael didn't think to ask if Kellen was ''[[SwitchedAtBirth the child she gave birth to]]''.]]

* In the ''Ouachita Mountain Shifters'' series, a seer prophecies that Thames' soulmate "will hide darkness in her heart, and have no love to give [Thames]". Which is true- for about a ''day''. And then she gets over being DrunkOnTheDarkSide and lives happily ever after with Thames. Grammatical tenses are a bitch that way.

* ''The Arcadia Project'' series, by Mishell Baker, is about fae folk in Hollywood, and the human agents responsible for making sure fae-human relationships go smoothly (and TheMasquerade is maintained). Most of the fae who come to Los Angeles are there to psychically bond with artists, and are pretty harmless. Key word being "most". The characters are frequently reminded to be extremely careful how they talk to the main antagonist of the first book, a powerful Unseelie noble. Because the difference between asking her not to ''hurt'' someone and asking her not to ''harm'' someone can be a giant chandelier dropped on someone's head after she magically snaps its chain--after all, the chandelier did all the actual damage. [[spoiler:A certain character makes this exact mistake at the climax of the book, and things go as badly as you might expect.]]

* In ''Tirant lo blanc'', an enemy town doesn't play fair, angering a character so much that he declares the whole town will come under his sword. Later they surrender and even convert to Christianity, so Tirant wants to spare them. However, a knight's word of honor is unbreakable, so he makes the oath come true literally; the sword is hung in the air and the whole town marches under it.

* In ''Changeling'' by Delia Sherman, Neef, a human girl raised in the New York fairy courts, breaks fairy law and is charged to bring the Lady of Central Park "the Scales of the Dragon of Wall Street", meaning his immensely valuable weighing apparatus. This challenge is cruelly, impossibly difficult and everybody knows it. [[spoiler:But, after all, as a ''dragon'', he has an entirely different set of scales growing all over him which he sheds regularly and is far more willing to part with-- and the Lady never said which kind, did she?]]

*** Likewise, Joffrey promises Sansa he would show her father mercy. [[spoiler:He considers a quick death by beheading to be merciful, considering that drawing and quartering were options too.]]

* In Cassandra Clare's ''Literature/TheLastHours'' trilogy, Cordelia accidently makes herself [[spoiler: Lilith's paladin. In the third book, Cordelia (with some help from Lucie and the nearby dead)forces Lilith to promise to free her from this burden once Belial has received the third and final blow from her sword Cortona. Note she never said it had to be her who delivers the blow.]]

* ''Literature/SwansBraidAndOtherTalesOfTerizan'': Essien promises that anything inside the treasure vault is Terizans if she retrieves the royal regalia. [[spoiler:There is nothing else. She uses this to rescue his brother Jameel, whom he orders killed however, as she brought him out with her from the vault.]]

* Clarissa in the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' story "[[Recap/GoosebumpsS1E12BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Be Careful What You Wish For]]" simply ''lives'' for this trope, especially in the TV adaptation. For but one example, when the protagonist says she wishes everyone would just buzz off, Clarissa grants her wish...by turning everyone into ''flies''.

*** The inability to lie is, of course, not the same as the inability to decide. A speaker can easily omit key information (such as Arya not telling anyone [[spoiler:she's the daughter of the queen of elves [[YouDidntAsk because everyone assumed she was a simple emissary]]]]), imply something that is untrue, or even unknowingly say something false as long as they believe it is true (Murtagh telling Eragon [[spoiler:they are brothers, when they are actually half-brothers, but Murtagh didn't know that part]]). Elves in particular, since they communicate primarily in the Ancient Language, are somewhat infamous for being incredibly good at technically telling the truth while still deceiving.

*** The inability to lie is, of course, not the same as the inability to decide. A speaker can easily omit key information, imply something that is untrue, or even unknowingly say something false as long as they believe it is true. Elves in particular, since they communicate primarily in the Ancient Language, are somewhat infamous for being incredibly good at technically telling the truth while still deceiving.

*** Oaths are also circumvented several times by the person holding to the letter of their oath while avoiding it's intention: One of the BigBad's henchman is able to let Eragon flee since "I was ordered to ''try'' to capture you, and that's what i did".

*** Oaths are also circumvented several times by the person holding to the letter of their oath while avoiding it's intention:

* In ''The Mystery of The Talking Skull'', a novel in the series The Three Investigators, one of the cryptic clues the titular talking skull gives the heroes is about someone having "disappeared from the world of men". This is initially taken as a euphemism for his death, but it turns out he's alive and DisguisedInDrag.