Sayyiduna Imran bin Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Lying can be avoided through indirect speech (tawriyah).
This is the correct version, as mawquf (a Companion's statement).
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20842
Sayyiduna Imran bin Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Lying can be avoided through indirect speech (tawriyah)."
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20843
This is another chain of the previous hadith.
Only Dawud bin al-Zibriqan narrated it as marfu' (attributed to the Prophet), and it has also been narrated as marfu' from Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) through another, weak route.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20844
Abu Ubayd (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Indirect speech (tawriyah) is when a man wants to say something which, if he said it plainly, would be a lie, so he uses other words in its place that agree with it in wording but differ from it in meaning, so that the listener imagines he meant that. And mandūhah means: scope and room.
The Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him) said: It is permissible when the aim is to ward off harm, but it is not permissible to bring harm upon others.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20845
Sayyiduna Sufyan bin Asid al-Hadrami (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: "It is the greatest treachery that you tell your brother something in which he believes you, while you are lying to him in it."
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20846
Sayyiduna Sufyan bin Asid al-Hadrami (may Allah be pleased with him) said that he heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and he mentioned the same.
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب الشهادات / 20847