Just wondering how frequent the phrase/compound "white lie" is nowadays and in general admiring what a good concept it is, and on casually checking via http://bncweb.lancs.ac.uk not only finding "classic white lie" (in case you wonder: "We are just good friends ---"), but, more relevant in academic and general writing contexts, this beauty:
"I didn't want to tell her I'd done nothing at all so I told a sort of white lie — said I was halfway through the first draft. "

#compoundWatch #BritishNationalCorpus #BNC