"How far is the next village?" the American asks a man standing by the edge of the road. In some countries, because the man realizes that the traveler is tired and eager to reach his destination  , he will politely say "Just down the road." He thinks this is more encouraging, gentler, and therefore the wanted answer. So the American drives through the night, getting more and more angry, feeling "being tricked". He thinks the man on purpose lied to him, for obviously he must have known the distance quite well. Had conditions been reversed  , the American would have felt he was "cheating" the driver if he had said the next town was not too far, and if he would be sorry to the weary driver, he would say "You have a good way to go yet, it is at least fifteen miles." The driver might be disappointed, but he would know what to expect. Whether to be accurate or polite leads to many misunderstandings between people of different cultures. If you know the situation in advance, it is sometimes easier to recognize the problem. The man at the roadside tells the American it is not far from the next village because he   _  .
wants to encourage him to go further doesn't know the exact distance at all wants to help the man to decide whether to stop and have a rest tries to play a trick on him