I've got myself in a pickle for telling a lie

Drop the present off as you've already planned. Then tell the relative the truth - that you hadn't dropped it off but told them you had to get them off your drop. The present is now with the intended recipient so no harm done.

Then don't engage about it further.

It's not actually as big a deal as you're making it out to be.

It's not really a big deal. Deliver the gift, tell the truth, and stop taking on unnecessary tasks for other people's convenience. If your family member has been living under a rock for a decade, tell her about Amazon Prime.

Blaming them by saying you are too soft and they had plenty of other people to ask is too late now OP. If you’d said no I won’t be able to do this before Christmas sorry they would have asked someone else and it would have gotten done. YOU agreed to do it, so you should have done it. Don’t lie anymore, buy the gift, take it over and say you’ve been meaning to drop it over but completely forgot. Don’t dig any deeper.

You can't lie further. You're essentially gaslighting the relative who searched the house for the present into thinking that they didn't search well enough!

Just say "Jane, sorry you got worried. I intended to drop it over so said I had, but then I got busy and didn't. I didn't think it would harm to wait because Sally isn't home until tomorrow. I'm going to take it over with me when I see her tomorrow."

Agree, it's spineless. Makes you seem flaky and untrustworthy - why be dishonest.

As for the, 'I'm just a girl who can't say no' mentality. Try. Otherwise this is the kind of mess you end up creating over and over again with your lack of boundaries. This kind of behaviour really isn't 'people pleasing' or being 'too nice', it's being chicken about experiencing the fleeting discomfort of saying a direct no.

OP you're trying to dig yourself out of a self-created hole whilst trying not to look bad, more and more lies and trying to worm out of it by blaming others, or 'I don't know what happened'. Come on. People will know you're lying to get out of it now. Sometimes all you need to do is admit 'I made a mistake', and fix it. Yes it's uncomfortable, but you'll get much more respect for this than trying to wriggle out of a mess of your own doing.

Paying the money back so easily makes you look incredibly guilty. Is it a case of wine? If so that’s easily some thing you would hide if you were leaving it outside the house.

Go and buy it today, leave it behind the bins, or in a garden shed, behind the green house basically a suitable hiding place that the family member who was checking the house may have missed.

Then text the recipient - saying ‘Hope you had a good trip, the present from Jane is behind the wheelie bins in a blue bag for life. Sarah said she couldn’t find it when checking the house. Xxx

Then text Jane ‘Spoken to Claire, she’s back from her trip today, she’s got the wine, I obviously hid it too well!

Just get the resent there and say as little info as possible. Going in to too much detail is a sign of lying.

Look, it's not theft as that's the intention to permanently deprive someone of assets and I presume you either will buy and deliver the gift or return the money but time is marching on now, the chaos of Christmas is gone and you can put this right. It's not so much of a 'pickle' as a massive hole you're digging!

It’s not naievity.

I think you’re missing the point here.

OP has gotten into this mess by lying. She’s going to dig herself a bigger hole by lying some more.

This thread isn’t about lying in general.
Yes, you’re right. We do all lie to some extent but in OP’s situation, more lying will make things worse for her situation.

Congratulations on finding a way to make yourself the victim in this!
I agree that transferring the money back and saying you've obviously messed up somehow is the way to go. That way they'll know not to ask you to do them a favour in the future.

This. Blame Christmas rushing about.

You've absolutely got to be honest here. You're not going to come out of it well as it looks like you're only fixing it because you got caught out. Continuing the lie makes absolutely no sense. But this lie would make me seriously reconsider you as a friend tbh.

Just tell the truth and apologise. Sorted.

I'm so embarrassed! I didn't steal the money.

But you did steal the money. You didn't mean to, you fully intended to use it for the intended purposes. But you haven't, you have in fact stolen it. So what you need to do now is make sure that somehow the intended recipient gets the present ASAP. It doesn't really matter now whether you dig yourself further into a hole trying to justify the lies you've already told, or whether you admit what happened and return the money, just make sure you sort it out either way.

Firstly you need to set more boundaries. Why did you say you would do this when it would take you an hour to do? You should have told the family member to post something!

Just say to them it must have been taken but you’ll buy something else and drop it off as a gesture.

Don’t say you’ll do it again in future.

Because it's incredibly easy to get caught out. Forget the details of the lie. People find out you didn't do what you said.

Good not hood lol.

If it were the other way round how would you feel?

You'd distrust the cleaner, the milkman, other family members. You'd be looking over your shoulder to see who is stealing your stuff.

Just fess up. It's a life lesson. But the hood thing is that you'll never be asked to do it again. Just fess up. Feel the weight lifted. Job done.

Why would you say you've done it when you haven't? I don't get that. You could have just said I have the gift but I've not delivered it yet.
I suspect the family member knows you didn't deliver it, the other family member checking it is there and talking about an investigation says just that.

Did you buy the gift?

Not horrified so much as think it's ridiculous to tell stupid easily uncovered lies when the truth is also an option.

Lying is often the suggested response to any problem on MN 'I don't want to go to this party what should I do?' is always met with 'tell them you've got covid / can't get a babysitter / are away for the weekend / have fallen into a sinkhole / have been abducted by aliens etc'

Why in Gods name people can't just say 'Thanks for the invite but I'll have to decline, hope you have a lovely party' is beyond me.

Likewise why the OP couldn't say 'Don't worry, I've been busy but all in hand and it will be there before they get back from their trip' is beyond me.

If you're going to lie, you make damn sure it's a good one, not an obviously flimsy transparent one that makes you look even worse!

I can't get over how many people on this thread are horrified by lying.
Do none of you know that people lie, on a regular basis, and that it's commonplace?!
People lie. Regularly. Small lies. Big lies. White lies.
I feel like there's a whole other level of naivety on this thread.

Ah it happens to the best of us OP.

This is a lesson to say no to requests that inconvenience you. The relative sounds a bit cheeky TBH, first asking then assuming there was some foul play.

I was going to say exactly this. You'll make yourself look so dishonest by sending the money back now. Just buy the gift and get it to the recipient asap. And then apologise.

Just be honest and tell them that you didn't get round to it and that you are very sorry and it's best if they don't ask you again. Send the money back to them.

Being honest is better than them thinking you are a liar or a thief.

Just say "sorry I was meaning to drop it over the day after you text as I'd just got it then forgot with everything else going on, I'll drop it over this evening! Don't worry it's safely here still" and send a picture of it.
Hopefully he won't ask you in future!