In my opinion, telling a lie is much worse. The absolute cold truth is much more preferred than a kind and uncertain lie. If you tell the truth, then you have been honest and even if it's a cold and tragic truth which you might not like, you might cry and become agitated and disappointed, but then you do know the absolute truth. You can leave it behind you and start in a new page. If you constantly are being told lies, whatever the lies are covering will only grow bigger and in the end not only you will become hurt, but many other people as well. It will result in huge problems because you will realize that you were buying lies this whole time and that the person was playing with you and your feelings, you will feel like a jerk because you trusted the person, and eventually after much self criticism you will stop trusting that person and also have difficulties in trusting other people at all. I personally always prefer the truth, no matter what it is about. You might feel better by hearing lies in the beginning, but believe me, you can't even imagine how much more damage it will cause you at a much later stage, it will surely backfire on you, so isn't it better that you find the truth at an early stage and deal with it? or do you prefer to play a game where you are the stupid one and eventually find out the truth and get even more hurt? It's a fact, beginning or end, you will become hurt anyways, but in which way and the amount is another question.