Matthew 28:13

Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.

The falsehood was its own refutation. Certainly no man can be trusted when relating what took place while he was "asleep"! There is always a cleft in the foot of a falsehood; it can never walk uprightly but must limp, hobble, and drag itself, leaving the tell-tale evidence visible to all. Further consideration against the plausibility of such a lie is the fact that if any such thing had occurred, the men who went to sleep would have been liable to the death penalty for having permitted it. In fact, Herod Agrippa I put to death sixteen soldiers at one time for their failure to keep Peter on that occasion when an angel delivered him (Acts 12:19).