people keep giving me wrong directions... can't they just say they don't know?

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i don't know if this is a cultural thing or if it is different in other countries, but here, everytime i ask for directions, people keep volunteering them. you'd think they knew what they were talking about, so you follow those directions. then you get lost. you go back, ask again. then the directions change! hm. out of curiosity (perhaps you heard his instructions wrong?) you give it another go. you don't find what you're looking for still. you go back, not to ask for directions (since obviously you won't get any decent ones) but to clarify things. "do you really know where it is?" reply: "um, not really because i'm not from around here, but i think it's this way..." *proceeds to make NEW directions* whew. this hasn't happened to me just once, but almost everyday. i have to find houses everyday so i constantly have to ask for directions. but people keep pointing me everywhere even when they don't know what they're talking about. why can't they just be honest and tell me they don't know where it is? i'm starting to wonder if it's a cultural thing, like if our cultural upbringing makes us feel that admitting that "we don't know" is a sign of weakness. i also experience this in the mall. i'm looking for a certain brand of shoes and a saleslady points me north. in the end, she admits she doesn't know. is it really so embarrassing to admit that as much as they want to help, they simply don't know?