Lying to Little Kids

Time Traveller wrote about deception and it reminded me of something that happened over the weekend.

My sweetheart and I were at the Huntington, and after wandering around the Art Gallery (formerly the residence of the Huntingtons) we took a walk by the Library. There's a lawn with Romanesque statues and a fountain at the end. There isn't water running through the fountain, but in the pond there were koi fish and gold fish swimming around.

We watched the fish for a bit, and then before we left a man and his two young sons came up. The boys were saying, "Look! Look! There's a fish in there!"

The man said, "No, I don't think there's any fish in there." By then he had noticed us and I said, "Oh, but there is!"

He seemed a little disgusted, then mouthed, "I know" before saying "Thanks." As in, "Thanks, but no thanks."

I don't know what the point of lying to little kids would be.