• In Beelzebub Himekawa tells Oga that he's hanging around an upstart gang to infiltrate them so Oga will leave, and then assures the gang that Oga's such an idiot that it will work. As you can tell from the place on this page, Himekawa was actually telling Oga the truth.
• In Naruto, Kabuto is confronted by Kakashi, and Kabuto all but confirms that he is working with Orochimaru, after which he manages to escape Kakashi unscathed. Later, he is berated by a fellow conspirator, after admitting he intentionally revealed that information.

• Magic: The Gathering: When they meet for the first time in Agents of Artifice, Nicol Bolas gives Jace Beleren a pretty frank explanation of how he lost control of the Consortium and his secret attempts to take it back. And then when Jace asks "Why are you telling me this?", he further explains that it made for a magnificent diversion to get him to let his mental guard down, and immediately launches a telepathic attack.

• Subversion, sort of: in Laff-A-Lympics #5, the Really Rottens have apparently renounced their cheating ways. Mrs. Creeply lampshades it, then Hokey Wolf subverts it:
  Mrs. Creeply: We are as honest as the day is long.
  Hokey: Well, the days are getting shorter this time of year.
• At the end of Watchmen, Veidt reveals his master plan to his fellow heroes after carrying out the most extreme part, confident they won't try to undo the beneficial effects of his crime. They don't. Or do they? The one fellow hero that does want to undo it, Rorschach, gets killed, but his diary is picked up by a newspaper... A small-press paper known, if at all, for racist and anti-Semitic views. Doomsday Clock reveals that Rorschach's diary was eventually published. It helped unravel Veidt's plans in less than a decade, leaving the world in even worse shape.

• 88719: After capturing Ianto, Tpytere decides that, instead of killing him to cover things up like Wtarfich suggests, they should just tell him the truth and release him so he can tell the rest of Torchwood that their planet-destroying bomb is for blowing up their own planet rather than Earth, and they only want to fix their propulsion system to get out now.
• In The Baleful Bureau, Jesse recognizes that the Baudelaires are highly resourceful and inquisitive children, so she explicitly warns them that some of the things she handles are classified and can't be shared.
• Dawn Comes on the Sunset Sea: Upon learning that several CAN councilors intend to blackmail Eddard regarding the matter of Jon's parentage, Aurora immediately marches right up to Eddard and informs him of the scheme. He's naturally outraged, but makes clear that said outrage isn't misplaced, thanking her for her honesty.
• Mythos Effect: Averted by the Turians. A far-right group presents a proposal to ramp up the pressure on their client states to draconian levels; the proposal is tossed out, but the group launches an Extranet campaign painting themselves as much more reasonable. One of the Turian negotiators then confesses everything to the Volus ambassador, hoping to invoke this trope... only for this incident to serve as The Last Straw for the ambassador, who throws his support towards a cabal working to sever the relationship between their races.
• Deconstructed in Rick and The Loud House. Following their visit to Dr. Lopez, the Louds decide to start being more honest with each other. But in "Toxicity in the Family", Lincoln goes overboard with this, revealing various secrets that his sisters have been keeping from each other, leading to a massive blow-out fight.

The Amazing Digital Circus

• The Psychology of a Broken AI:
  • A few sessions into their therapy routine, Pomni decides to come clean to Caine about her initial selfish motivations for agreeing to rehabilitate him but also reassures him that she has since become more sincerely invested in helping him and being his friend for real. Caine, in a display of his emotional growth thanks to her efforts, takes it well and forgives her, relieving her of some of the invisible pressure she'd been holding onto since starting their sessions and bringing them even closer together.
  • After accidentally spilling the secret of Caine's Attempted Suicide to the other humans, Pomni is initially wracked with guilt and anxiety at how Caine might react if he finds out, not helped by Caine cheerfully deciding to treat her to a surprise meal to thank her for being such a good friend and confidante. In the end Pomni confesses her mistake to Caine rather than holding it in or lying about it to spare his feelings, and it turns out for the best as he quickly forgives her and shows more concern over the impact keeping his secrets and managing his mental health have had on Pomni's own mental health.
  • In the end revealing the secret of Caine's Attempted Suicide to the other humans turns out for the best for both Caine and Pomni in the long run. It relieves Pomni of the stress and burden of witholding things from her friends for their own good and Caine finally chooses to confront and air the topic out himself before the other humans where he is met with almost unanimous support and sympathy, leading to him finally starting to find the acceptance and connections with the humans that he was sorely lacking before.

Avatar Legends

• In Foxfire, Li makes a point of being as honest and upfront with his feelings as possible, to the point that he's outright incapable of lying. This works in his favor when he admits to Jet that he's an amnesiac firebender, as Jet already knows by that point that Li is excessively honest and has no reason to lie to him.

Bleach

• Throughout Kaien's Fate, Aizen's Experiment and Ichigo's Sister, Kirika repeatedly advocates that Ichigo should be informed of what's going on rather than being kept Locked Out of the Loop. Unfortunately, she's repeatedly outvoted.

Dragon Age

• The protagonist of Dragon Age: The Crown of Thorns can somehow pull this off even when he's setting up plan after plan plus a Zero-Approval Gambit on the side. He also manages to make people believe whatever he wants, like Trian being dead when he isn't yet still avoids lying by phrasing his words as questions and hypotheses. That said, every one of his direct statements can qualify as Brutal Honesty.

Franklin

• In Franklin Lost Episode: Otter's Sickness, Franklin's parents decide to be entirely honest with their son about what's going on with Otter. Unfortunately, Otter didn't feel the same way, having tried to keep the Awful Truth from him for fear of upsetting him. He doesn't take the revelation well.

Gravity Falls

• Three Can Keep a Secret explores this in various ways:
  • Many of the residents of Gravity Falls have struggled to deal with the impact of Weirdmageddon, since they're both unable and unwilling to talk about everything that happened. This lack of support from those outside the town has left them even more screwed up as a result.
  • By contrast, Dipper and his friends are much more open with each other, relying upon the acceptance and forgiveness of their peers, enabling them to cope far better than most of the town's residents.
  • Mabel defies this; she doesn't understand why anyone would want to confide their problems in others, convinced that doing so would only make things hurt more. Worse yet, she's sincerely convinced that being honest would just make others hate her more. This makes her the least mentally stable and most self-destructive member of the Pines, though she's in denial about just how bad things are.
  • Also Played With in that the Pines are a family of Combat Pragmatists and Con Artists who regularly employ deception against their enemies. The problem is that both Stan and Mabel fell into the trap of treating everyone as marks they needed to deceive and manipulate in order to come out on top, including their friends and family. Stan learned the hard way that this only leaves you isolated in the long run, while Mabel is in the painful process of finding that out for herself.

Harry Potter

• Dangerverse: Luna manages to pull this off despite her reputation for being a Cloudcuckoolander.

How to Train Your Dragon

• In Hiccup the Useless, when the Hooligan Tribe's idea of pretending that Snotlout was the hero of Berk goes horribly wrong, Hiccup comes up with the idea of being honest with Chief Mogadon instead. He cites the consequences of him keeping Toothless a secret from Stoick and them collectively keeping their dragons a secret from Dagur as proof that keeping secrets will only make things worse. Not only that, but by showing that everyone knows how to tame dragons on Berk, it would lower Hiccup's "value" and thus make it less likely that Mogadon will "collect" him. He was right.

Miraculous Ladybug

• Played With in The Karma of Lies: After Lila steals from him, Adrien assumes that all he needs to do is be perfectly honest and tell the police everything. That will fix everything, right? Problem is, however, that up to this point, Adrien has been anything but honest - he knew Lila was a Con Artist the whole time, but chose not to say or do anything about it before that point because HE hadn't been personally affected yet. And he blithely admits this to the police without a single thought as to how they might interpret that. So his previous dishonesty undercuts the effectiveness of his decision to finally tell the truth, making it look entirely self-serving. (Which it is, but not in the way the police believe.)
• Scarlet Lady:
  • "The Mime" has a subplot wherein Marinette works herself into a tizzy after accidentally deleting a video from Alya's cellphone, desperately trying to figure out some way to recover it. When she finally admits what happened, Alya reveals that all of her videos get automatically uploaded to her cloud; she's only upset that her bestie wound up beating herself up over a nonissue.
  • When all of the kwami plan to meet up, Tikki and Plagg both decide to sneak away from their partners. Pollen, by contrast, lets Marinette know what's going on. Not only is Marinette totally okay with this, she makes a bunch of gifts for her to take and give the other kwami.

My Hero Academia

• Crimson and Emerald:
  • Hawks strives to be as honest as possible in both his private and personal life, and refuses to steal the credit for others' work even when pressured to do so. He willingly reveals his Dark and Troubled Past to Toshinori and the Midoriyas, and tells Mirko about his new family relations, only hesitating when it comes to the matter of explaining Izuku's Quirk... and even then, he's waiting for the right moment.
  • Izuku tells Rumi and his fellow interns the truth about his Quirk and villainous father in order to prevent any cases of Poor Communication Kills.
• For Their Sakes: Hawks believes in this, trying to convince the Voices to tell him about upcoming events so he can pass on warnings to the other heroes. They refuse, afraid that doing so could catch the attention of the wrong people, like All For One or the Hero Commission. After they discover that Hawks can use Orange's Quirk, telling the truth becomes even less appealing, as they realize what kind of conclusions others might draw from that.

Naruto

• A Leaf of the Tree: After Team 24's first C-Rank mission, Hoheto tells his genin not to leave any details out of their report. This includes admitting that he Failed a Spot Check when they were ambushed due to not having his Byakugan activated.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

• In Thanks Kyubey, Kyubey is a much more benevolent Mentor Mascot, and is extremely upfront with the girls about how being a magical girl works. This includes holding an Empty Chair Memorial to remember Charlotte after her witch form is defeated.

RWBY

• White Sheep:
  • When Sienna Khan, leader of a violent Faunus militia group, asks Ren why they should work together, he bluntly admits that they have few common goals, no common motives, and even use entirely different means to accomplish their goals. But the only other option is the Radical faction, who were plenty crazy even before they became a cult worshiping a spiteful asshole. Sienna accepts this, and agrees to work with them.
  • Sienna specifically interrogates Ilia, who was recently one of Adam's trusted lieutenants, on why she's planning to side with Sienna rather than Adam's cult. Instead of arguing morality or love or any of her myriad other motivations, Ilia says simply "Adam got eaten by a dragon. I don't want to be eaten by a dragon." Sienna snorts and says she's heard worse reasons.
  • Yang talks to the God of Darkness about how the God of Light has been screwing him over for as long as the world has existed, asking him to put in half the work and then letting him get shuffled off into the Grimmlands where no worshipers would ever come visit. The God of Light was worshiped and adored, while the God of Darkness was shunned and feared. The God of Darkness accuses her of trying to make him attack the God of Light—and Yang says yes, that's exactly right. But that doesn't mean she's wrong. In the end, she does convince the God of Darkness to fight the God of Light, and after he wins they dedicate a yearly festival in his honor.

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong

• Reflected in Shadow: Shen Qingqiu decides to tell Bingge the truth about himself, which fascinates the other man.

A Song of Ice and Fire

• Purple Days: In the Final Loop, Sansa decides to go straight to their parents and reveal what they know about the futre. This turns out to be an excellent move, as it helps ensure the Hand becomes well aware of the looming threat and are entirely willing to work with them. Later remarks also imply that several of Joff's confidants, including Tyrion, have become aware of Joff and Sansa's history of looping.

Star Wars

• In Eros Turannos, this attitude highlights Firmus Piett's policy in dealing with his superiors, to the extent that he admits his doubts about his suitability for a promotion even when he was offered the position by Darth Vader in person because he recognises his potential inexperience in this area, even when angering Vader is regarded as a bad idea (Vader, however, appreciates Piett's honesty and promotes him regardless).
• Of Queens, Knights, and Pawns: During her confrontation with Darth Vader, Leia decides to be as honest as possible with him, since he'd be able to sense if she was lying. Subverted, however, when Poor Communication Kills strikes and long-standing resentments bubble to the surface.

• Aladdin (1992, Disney): Genie attempting to get Aladdin to tell Jasmine the truth about the whole "not-really-a-prince-but-rather-a-street-urchin" thing. Aladdin doesn't listen, getting himself into more and more trouble by constantly lying on top of his original lies, until it all comes crashing down when the truth comes out on its own.
• Tinker Bell tries this in Peter Pan (1953) when she flat-out admits to Peter that she tried to have Wendy killed by the Lost Boys. However, she wasn't exactly successful in the "not getting punished" part. That she not only showed no remorse, but seemed proud of what she did probably didn't help her case.

• In Broken Arrow (1996), an advisor tells the Joint Chiefs to be honest about a stealth bomber crashing because someone almost certainly watched it take off and they'd look foolish with a lie. Later the Joint Chiefs head him off by declaring under no circumstances would they ever admit that a nuclear bomb was just detonated underground by a terrorist on US soil.
• In Clear and Present Danger, the US President is advised not just to not deny his friendship with a murdered businessman who turned out to have drug ties, but to ramp it up answering with "we were life long friends" thus stumping reporters with follow-up questions.
• The Honey Pot: Spoken by Merle McGill to Inspector Rizzi in this exchange:
  Merle: I am sorry, inspector. I just don't know why I blew my stack like that! I guess it's this whole situation. After all… honesty is the best policy. Right?
  Rizzi: Debatable, but at the moment I would appreciate it.
• In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Captain Jack Sparrow will often use a lot of complete truth mixed in with outright lies when manipulating people. This means that, while you should never trust him, you also can't afford to actually ignore him. It tends to make others surprised when they find out about the true parts.
  Norrington: You actually were telling the truth.
  Jack Sparrow: I do that quite a lot. Yet people are always surprised.
• The Shawshank Redemption: Red wins parole when he's finally open and honest with the parole board after multiple failures where he tried to tell them what they wanted to hear. This is mostly because while he did previously tell them what he thought they wanted to hear, from his behavior and intonation he was so obviously insincere if not outright sarcastic that the board members saw right through his phony confession. Red's final hearing is the first time that he expresses genuine remorse for his crimes.
• Said word for word in Sons of the Desert, by Betty Laurel to her husband Stan as she pampers him with candy and cigarettes, after he was unable to stick to his and Ollie's lie about where they had gone and tearfully confessed the truth. Later, Stan relates the lesson to Ollie: "Betty said that honesty is the best politics."
• In The Three Musketeers (1993), the king confronts Richelieu about the rumors of betrayal surrounding him. Rather than deny anything, Richelieu lists off every single treasonous and blasphemous thing he's been up to to the king's face with a hint of mockery to make the king think the whole notion is ridiculous.

• While the Aesop's Fables that actually teach that "honesty is the best policy" are well-known, there's another, hilarious one in which someone tries to be Genre Savvy in this way and it backfires. Two men get kidnapped by apes and hauled before the ape king, where they see he's set up a whole court for himself with all the trappings of actual royalty. The "king" asks each man in turn what they think of him and his court. The first one sucks up to him about how magnificent he is, and is set free. His friend figures that if that's what you get for lying, the reward for telling the truth must be even better, and tells the ape he looks like an idiot pretending to be a real king and that he's not impressing anyone. The king naturally orders him executed. The moral of this one seems to be, "Don't go overboard."
• There are numerous tales/jokes where a ruler inspects the prison, and everyone insists he is innocent. Finally, the last prisoner admits he is indeed a criminal... to which the ruler says "Let this monster out, I won't allow him to ruin all the good people here!"

• There is a joke about a family of rednecks with three sons, who get told the Cherry Tree legend by their father, who then asks which of them knocked down the family outhouse. One son, inspired by the legend, steps forward and admits to the deed... and gets paddled for his trouble. When he complains, "But George Washington's father didn't punish him for chopping down the cherry tree!" the father replies, "George Washington's father wasn't sitting in the cherry tree when he chopped it down!"
• Subverted in an old hazing game where the pledges or newbies or what-have-you are told that "Honesty is the best policy." The pledges are then asked a question which ranges from reasonable to silly to embarrassing to malicious. The pledge then whispers their response to a referee of sorts, who then announces to the body whether the pledge has answered correctly or not. Those who have answered incorrectly are subjected to some sort of punishment (again, the maliciousness of it depends on the organization). They are again reminded that, "Honesty is the best policy." Rinse, repeat. The solution, of course, is to ignore the question and simply answer, "Honesty."

• Adrian Mole subverts this phrase in Cappuccino Years, after his mother rants about why she dislikes Glenn, and Adrian retaliates by doing the same about Ivan. He then thinks they both went too far, and that "dishonesty is the best policy".
• The Acts of Caine: The page quote comes at the end of the Xanatos Gambit the protagonist spent all of Caine Black Knife finagling into place. Caine has just royally screwed the Board's plans up. Their two choices are: reward him for sabotage and murder of one of their number by giving him a total pardon and more authority and free rein than they gave to the guys sent out to catch him, or permanently lose access to Overworld and possibly risk Overworld's most powerful empire marching over a portal with dragons and warmages to blast Earth into submission. Caine is happy to unveil all the details because he's not afraid to die and they have no alternatives.
• Moist von Lipwig of Discworld pulls this off in Making Money, utterly derailing a court case against him by publicly admitting that he is a former con man who was recruited by the Patrician. It throws off the otherwise unflappable 351-year-old zombie lawyer questioning him.
• In Dragon Bones, Ward does this several times. When forced to explain the presence of Oreg, who has a strong resemblance to the Hurog family, he tells people Oreg is a ... "cousin", the known euphemism for "bastard offspring". This is true; Oreg is indeed a bastard son ... of a long-dead ancestor, generations ago. Ward's strategy for lying is to always stay as close to the truth as possible. Another example: When he asks for the help of a nobleman, Ward mentions that he needs to be absolutely honest, as this particular noble hates liars, and wouldn't help him if he lied. He knows it is better to admit he had been Obfuscating Stupidity than to continue doing it, and risk being caught.
• Men in Black: The Grazer Conspiracy: After the Numen fleet arrives and intimidates the Zulla and Horsanakii fleets into fleeing, one of the Numen contacts Jay and co. and asks them a few questions, including if they were aware of the power of the weapons on their ship. When Jay answers that "We did. We hoped never to use them. We worked not to use them.", the Numen approve, and so does Zed when Jay later says that he "Just told them the truth, boss. Figured that was the safer way to go."
• Very dark example in No Country for Old Men with Anton Chigurh who prides himself on being 100% honest in all his dealings (as he puts it, he “models himself after God”). This extends to things like shooting a hotel clerk to get the registry because he refuses to lie about being a police officer, or murdering a dead man’s widow for no other reason than that he’d threatened to kill her earlier and not doing so would be going back on his word.
• This crops up in several ways in a A Song of Ice and Fire.
  • Bronn makes his living (and keeps himself alive) basically by being Mr Honest — if, occasionally, Mr Blunt, too. He's totally upfront about his skills, about what he will do (it's a long list), what he won't do (quite short, but only if the money is good), what he has done (when it becomes relevant) and, only very occasionally, who he has worked for (only if they're in no position to care that he's outed them or if it's a matter of easily accessible record). He won't go into details, though, if he doesn't have to; and, says as much. Usually politely. He's also upfront about being Only in It for the Money and when/where/how he'll pull the contract on his end... And, as a result, no hard feelings -- which means he's unlikely to get a sword to the face from, say, a disappointed ex-employer with a disproportionate grudge. (On example is when he's hired by Tyrion- Bronn tells him upfront he'll stay until he gets a better offer, with an option for Tyrion to try to at least match it. He does end up with an offer he considers better... and is now effectively working directly against Tyrion. It sucks, but Tyrion admits it's not like he wasn't warned ahead of time so it isn't personal on either part, just against Bronn's employer)
  • The Lannisters, as a group, tend towards owning what they do and who they are, so they use this tactic in preference to many others. Also, the truth is often a more potent weapon than outright lies or being Metaphorically True precisely because it can be verified. Jaime and Tyrion, in particular, are great advocates of saying exactly what they know and what they have done (well, most of the time) when it'll serve them to do so. Both boys learned from Dad, although Tywin can be rather more parsimonious with what he shares and with whom. Cersei... not quite so much: she can be a bit hampered by not always seeing why she should come totally clean (particularly as she has a lot of very dangerous dirty linen).
  • The Golden Company has this as a basic strategy: because they're known to be exceedingly honest, the very rare occasions they do attack an ex-employer, or otherwise break a contract, everybody in both Westeros and Essos knows for absolutely certain that either A) said (stupid) employer tried to screw them over in some way (and thus had their inevitable, embarrassingly thorough curbstomp coming) or B) they are following a Blackfyre into a battle for the Iron Throne on very short notice (sorry, Boss: the discretionary clause is right there), so when they C) seemingly break their pattern by ditching Myr's standing contract for no discernible reason and then start hitting the Stormlands on behalf of an unknown quantity in a time without any significant Blackfyre inheritors/ pretenders around to speak of, it proves the rule thanks to throwing a lot of uncertainty into the mix for both bystanders and those in the middle of it.
• In Warrior Cats, often when a cat is caught doing something "wrong", they tell their leader the truth, since they typically were doing it for a good reason and the leader will understand (for instance, when Fireheart and Graystripe were caught bringing prey to a starving enemy Clan).
• Every last Aes Sedai in The Wheel of Time, no matter her individual personality or Ajah, can and will pounce with this... when she's absolutely certain it'll get the people she's being painfully honest at to do what she wants because they've otherwise been boxed in. However, beware some of them mixing Exact Words, or being Metaphorically True, for all those who are properly sworn to the Oath Rod Cannot Tell a Lie, not all Aes Sedai necessarily come all the way totally, 100% honestly honest all the time. Even if they think they are.
• In the Xanth, by Piers Anthony, demons are infamous, not for being liars, but for being 100% honest at all times. They may not tell you the whole truth, but they'll never just make something up, because a single truth will often be far more devastating than a thousand lies.

• In the pilot episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Coulson decides to earn the trust of Skye, resident anti-government hacker activist, by injecting his fellow Agent, Ward, with a truth serum and locking them in an interrogation room. Subverted when it later turns out S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't have a truth serum at all; it's left ambiguous as to how much of what Ward revealed while pretending to be under its effects was actually true and what was made up.
• The Dukes of Hazzard, Twisted in Season 4's "Nothing But the Truth." Boss Hogg sits on a syringe containing truth serum, and finds that honesty being the best policy could cost him his marriage (he lets slip he doesn't really love Lulu) and his life (when he reveals the truth behind one of his schemes to the authorities and names names).
• In Firefly, Saffron's husband walks in on her and Mal, while she has a gun pointed at Mal.
  Saffron: Durran, this isn't what it looks like.
  Mal: Unless it looks like we're stealing your priceless Lassiter, 'cause, that's what we're doin'. Don't ask me 'bout the gun, though, 'cause that's new.
  Durran: Well, I appreciate your honesty. Not, you know, a lot, but...
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981) has a reversal of the Ape Court joke in the Folklore category. The Vogon Captain reads his tortuously bad poetry to the captured heroes (who he previously threatened to have spaced) and asks them what they think of it. The two go at length about how good it is, noting the clever use of made-up poetry conventions. Once they're done, the Captain says they were completely wrong, and that his poetry being tortuously bad was actually his intent, to put other people in same bad mood that he's in.
• The Hogan Family, In "Leave It To Willie," what Willie thinks will bail him out of serious trouble. After all, all you have to do is confess that you stole your father's convertible to go out for a joy ride (all while you're 12 years old and nowhere near having a driver's license), crash the car into a parked car and cause major damage, flee the scene even though there was an eyewitness to the incident, try to cover up the damage, and allow your big brother to take the blame ... and you'll get off scot free. Not so ... Willie's mother, Valerie, tells him that by not coming clean when he was asked, he lied by omission ... claiming he did not know anything about the accident that she just accused David of. So in essence, the aesop becomes, "Honesty is the best policy when you are asked the first time, even when the truth is difficult and you could face severe consequences anyway."
• JAG: This trope is a recurring theme on the show and is brought up in several episodes. The resolution of the eight season episode "Need to Know" is a good case in point. However, the twist is that there should be honesty among the Americans, but maintaining a false facade towards the others is okay.
• In the second episode of Resident Alien, Dr. Vanderspeigle manages to win over a cranky old patient by bluntly informing him that he'll be dead by the end of the year. The patient had become embittered toward Vanderspeigle's predecessor because he suspected that the doctor's warnings were just an attempt to trick him into dieting when he knew that he was getting so old that he'd be dead soon anyway.
• In the television adaptation of the James Clavell's novel Shogun the Jesuit Fr. Alvito reports to Fr. Carlo Dell’Aqua that Blackthorne had told Lord Torananga about the Treaty of Zaragoza which divided up newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal. Alvito further says that Toranaga asked him if such a thing existed. Alvito confirmed to Toranaga that the treaty existed, which upset the Portugese Captain Ferriera who complained that confessing about the treaty to the Japanese was endangering all their efforts. Both Dell'Aqua and Alvito countered that to lie to the Japanese would have worse consequences than admitting the truth and could drive a wedge between Toranaga and the Jesuits if the lie was uncovered.

• WWE manager Slick's catchphrase was "Honesty is the best policy." Of course, he often averted it to so many degrees.
• The Addiction, known for their subterfuge, blackmailing and underhanded tactics adopted a policy of "honesty" after their Knights Of The Rising Dawn conspiracy failed. While it did lead to them winning Ring of Honor's Tag Team Title belts, the fallout lead to them having to defend those belts in a ladder war against both the Motor City Machine Guns and The Young Bucks. Well, "honesty" didn't make their last stand anymore effective, so it was back to subterfuge and infiltration, this time against Cody and Bullet Club.

• Ruby Quest: When Ruby got a Third Eye, she hid it from her companion Tom. Later, strong pressure from players led her to reveal it, which led to a heartwarming moment and probably a lot less trouble down the line.

• Subverted in 2027. Being honest with Magnus in the game will prevent him from fighting you at the end, except when he wants you to retrieve the Amita, being honest about stealing it will have him kill you. Very much averted with the Human Horizon Agent in Paris. Telling him who you are will have him try to kill you.
• In Dragon Age: Inquisition, when meeting the Iron Bull he openly admits that he's actually a spy for the Qunari in order to avoid any potential problems that could come from being dodgy about the truth since he figures that the Inquisition is bound to find out sooner or later. He states that since they have mutual goals, he's willing to share info from his superiors with the Inquisition if he's allowed to write a few reports.
• Mentioned by Sheogorath in The Elder Scrolls Online: "Speak up! Honesty is the best policy, as far as you know."
• The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-: In the Coming-of-Age route, Takumi convinces Nozomi to be honest about how she got into the SDU so that she doesn't have to fear being rejected by the others. Otherwise, choosing to lie results in Ending 45 where the lie is quickly uncovered and it results in Takumi getting locked up in the courtyard cage while the rest of the team intends to do the same to Nozomi.
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: Link can throw his items into some fairy fountains. A fairy will confront him immediately, asking if he dropped his item into the water. If you answer honestly, the fairy can sometimes give a better item. If you lie and say it wasn't you, the fairy is disappointed and always just returns your item.
• Look Outside: You can encounter a little boy named Joel while exploring a neighbouring apartment. Joel will ask if you're a doctor who's come to look at his baby sister's teeth. Actually saying you are a doctor is the wrong choice; you need to be truthful and say you're just a neighbour or a friend, or he won't trust you enough to recruit him as a party member.
• Zig-zagged by Kerrigan's first conversation with Mengsk in Brood War: "The only thing I can assure you of, Arcturus, is that without my help, you'll be the Emperor of your own little eight by eight cell for the rest of your life." But earlier she had mentioned that she didn't want petty grudges to get in the way of her plans for the UED, which was a lie.
  • Oh, she was 100% truthful about that. Once her plans for the UED have come to pass, on the other hand...
• In Stardew Valley, most if not all friendship scenes where you can lie (or try to convince someone else to) will turn out better if you're just honest and upfront instead. For example, in one scene at the clinic, you startle Maru into dropping a beaker, and she's concerned about what Harvey will say when he finds out. You can either tell her to clean up the evidence and pretend it didn't happen (she refuses and tells him what happened; you lose points with her for your bad suggestion), tell her to blame you instead (he'll reprimand her for not taking personal responsibility and cut her pay to recoup the expenses; you lose points with her), or tell her to admit that she had an accident (he'll tell her not to worry about it, because she's such a reliable employee; you gain points with her). Often averted when people ask for your opinion on things: you tend to gain points if you pick the option that affirms their own belief, even if you — the player — disagree. For example, when you catch Linus digging through a trashcan for discarded food, he tells you that there's nothing wrong with it because it'd just go to waste anyway, then asks you if you think otherwise. If you do say so, he'll be disappointed and you'll lose points with him.
• In Tavern Talk, Fable believes that being honest with your feelings is the best way to resolve conflict, which is why for "The Lagoon of Tranquility", they consider taking a Charisma potion with the power to inspire people, hopefully to convince the Mari-Morgan to resolve her lover's spat with the Banshee.

• In El Goonish Shive, after nearly dying because of Abraham, Nanase decides she doesn't want to die living a lie and decides to be as honest as she can be. This includes being open about her homosexuality, wearing the clothes she likes and not lying to those close to her about as many things as possible without divulging government secrets or breaking The Masquerade.
• Doc Scratch of Homestuck is overt about this — he tells people on many occasions that he never lies, and has never been seen actually contradicting that statement. As a near-"omniscipotent" being, he can see the entirety of any conversation or interaction (with a few "dark spots") prior to the actual initiation of the conversation, and sees no reason to lie to people about things he knows they are going to do.
• Misfile: Normally not relevant; since the world got hit with a Cosmic Retcon that turned Ash female and took two years off Emily's age while updating everyone else's memories to match, they know better than to try and tell people the truth. But it is referenced when Ash needs to break up with his/her girlfriend, and is looking for an excuse.
  Emily: Honesty is the best policy.
  Ash: Honesty would get us both locked in an insane asylum.
• In The Order of the Stick, the Inter-Fiend Cooperation Commission invoke this when offering Vaarsuvius a Deal with the Devil: they present their offer up-front without any Jackass Genie Loophole Abuse, saying that "Contracts are for people with something to hide," and even suggest an alternate course of action to nudge V towards the deal. However, they (but not V) know that the alternate plan is unworkable, they tactically omit that the deal lets them borrow V's soul while V is still alive, and they imply that the Soul Splice can affect V's alignment so as to discourage Vaarsuvius from taking responsibility for their actions during the Splice. It is also notable that "Contracts are for people with something to hide" sounds an awful lot like "we're not hiding anything from you" without meaning anything of the kind.
• In Whither, Finn only starts cooperating (if not outright trusting) Emelind once she stops beating around the bush and tells him the truth, as much of it as she knows.

• In Critical Role, Yasha will tell the truth even if it's not the best thing for her. She explains that she's not skilled enough to get away with deceiving many people, so she would rather have a reliable reputation for the truth that people could respect than ruin things with a failed lie.
• In "Whitepine", The detective says that he values complete honesty in Episode 6, and tells Ivory that he'll be completely honest with her in exchange for her also being honest. Unfortunately for him, her Shrinking Violet personality means that she is unable to implicate herself during his rapid-fire questioning.

• Invoked in the Amphibia episode “Return to Wartwood”. When the Plantars realize they’ve forgotten to bring back Souvenirs for the townsfolk from their trip to Newtopia, they plot a scheme to cover it up. It’s Anne Boonchuy who opposes this scheme, lampshading that she has learned the importance of honesty many, many times throughout the series, and only begrudgingly going along with it because Sprig fears it might damage his budding relationship with Ivy. When the scheme predictably backfires, the Plantars are forced to admit the truth, learning that while the townsfolk are disappointed that the Plantars didn’t bring back gifts, they’re mostly just glad to have them back as life was boring without their usual antics, and are more upset they didn’t just tell the truth in the first place (earning the Plantars a dirty look from Anne).
• The first-season Gargoyles episode, "The Edge", where Xanatos reveals the entirety of his Gambit-of-the-week to a VERY irritated Goliath, as part of a second plan that has nothing to do with the first... and succeeds.
  • Also, the second-season's "Eye of the Beholder." Xanatos's "Plan D" consists of telling the Gargoyles "I fucked up, I need help." And that's the one that works. The "avoiding punishment" part comes in that the Gargoyles not only help him save his fiancée, but don't seek retribution on him for unleashing the crazy monster she'd become on the city in the first place (though they do demand that he give up the Artifact of Doom that caused her to become a crazy monster). Their reason? He's discovered love.
• An episode of Goof Troop has Goofy reinforce this as his motto, which leads Pete to exploit him by bringing him to work at his used car store and having him hypnotized into being a crooked salesman like himself, as he figures customers will trust Goofy more than him. In the end, Goofy ends up taking Pete's lessons a little too literally ("finders keepers", for example, leads to him stealing a car he had just sold simply because it was parked and left unsupervised), causing Pete so much trouble that he has to "revert" Goofy toward the end of the episode.
• In Invincible, following her adoption of Mark's alien half-brother Debbie quickly turns away any nannies offering their services since she knows that they're all moles sent by the GDA and is worried about what they might do to a half-Viltrumite infant. Eventually, one of them outright admits that she was sent by the GDA, stating that while she wasn't supposed to say that but she thinks it's wrong to mislead a potential employer, which is enough to have Debbie invite her in. She later establishes that she has a specialized enough skillset that she can tell off the GDA and that her professional loyalty lies solely with Debbie above all else.
• In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Equestria Games", when Spike thinks he can light fires with his mind and tries to do it again, Twilight Sparkle takes him aside and explains that she lit the torch for him instead of letting him keep thinking that he has psychic powers or something. If she hadn't told him the truth right away, he would probably have gotten himself into big trouble somehow. It does make sense since there's already been at least two episodes this season about the importance of telling the truth, and one was right before this one.
• The Simpsons: In "Bart's Friend Falls in Love", Bart gets jealous of Milhouse spending time with his new girlfriend, so he tells her overprotective father about the relationship so he can break it up, leaving Milhouse utterly broken. Bart ends up feeling guilty about hurting his friend, and though he's hesitant at first, he tells the truth, which makes a now-furious Milhouse attack him until they're both exhausted and they reconcile.
  Bart: Lisa, I feel terrible. I ratted on my best friend, and he doesn't even know I did it.
  Lisa: Well, according to Eternity magazine, the feeling of guilt has been linked to the neurotransmitter gamephenomene. Dow Chemical is developing a minty gel which will eliminate excess guilt, but unfortunately, it won't be on the market for another six months. So I guess you're gonna have to bite the bullet and confess to Milhouse.

• In 1960, Israeli Mossad forces kidnapped Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann from Argentina. Though the covert operation did proceed (more or less) as expected, the contingency plan if Argentinian police intervened was to disclose everything.
• University courses on the study of propaganda often note that the most effective propaganda is that which is true, as it leaves no chance for someone pulling the thread.