If, finding one's self operating in an environment of debased coinage and lacking the ability to apprehend and prosecute but not the ability to identify those who are passing the counterfeit, it may be that the best immediate response is to pass counterfeit back to those from whom it came.  Of course in the final phase of debasement it will be only the victims so doing that will be prosecuted.  In the case which afew originally cited, humor can serve both to protect the victim of the lie and to expose the liar.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."