In cirque du freak a living night mare what is revealed about steve in chapter 13-15

In the story 'Condensed Milk', the author tries to communicate the idea that it is alright to lie when someone has bad intentions towards you. Though no specific phrase mentions this idea, we can understand through the whole story that the author did what was best for him which was by lying to Shestakov that he would go along with him if he bring him food.

The lines " 'You know,’ I said, carefully licking the spoon, ‘I changed my mind. Go without me.’" and "I mean, after all, two cans of condensed milk aren’t such a big deal." presents the idea that he lied to him because the escape plan was devised and he just wanted some food.