Which one to choose:

A truth that draws a tear or a lie that brings smile?

Thiruvalluvar the great Tamil poet in one of his famous couplets has defined truth as telling what is not harmful in any way! According to him an exact repetition of fact is not truth!!! But a wise rendering of it, allowing for edition/modification is advisable.

King Harichandra, on the other hand, is a stickler for literal truth, verbatim reproduction! Woes resulting from that did not bother him or shake his staunch belief in what truth is.

Sathyameva jayathe is our motto. A laudable philosophy.

Practically speaking lies are preferable to truth in many circumstances - without guilt or scruples!

A popular saying that half-truths are more dangerous than whole lies should not be forgotten either!

Lie!

But as a matured human, we should have the power the taste the bitterness of truth.

Lie to hide a truth is just temporary and no matter whatever we do, truth is going to surface in most cases.

I cant imagine the bitterness of the situation can produce when the truth surfaces and we are assuming a lie as truth.