Most of us (if not all) have stories that could back this up. The congregation secretary at my old Hall was a disaster as far as organization went, and his wife was one of the biggest gossips in the circuit. He used to leave the elder's book out in plain sight in his house and you'd often find publisher cards under the seat cushions. He also had five small kids. His wife seemed to know the intimate details of judicial committe matters going back many years, but that's another story.
Not long after my baptism, he not surprisingly lost a boat load of publisher cards. He started houding the brothers for the slips they had already turned in because the CO visit was drawing near. He asked my Mom and she told him that she no longer had records going back that far. He point blank told her in front of me to give him a number, any number. Estimate it, he said. My jaw hit the floor. This was back when I was all in and thought it was actually a rosy spiritual paradise such as is portrayed in the literature.
A year or so later I became a regular pioneer and was out in service with the service overseer (also a pioneer). We were out for about an hour and fifteen minutes. I kept meticulous records at the time (although with the passage of time I too fudged my numbers) and when he saw me write down 1:15 in my notebook he said to me, "Write down 3 hours. We're pioneers, after all." It suddenly made sense how we was able to work a job that often required overtime, be an elder and pioneer all at the same time.
It's part of the culture. You may not start out that way, but most eventually become that way. The numbers are fudged from top to bottom.
