How about the I didn't do it Child?

My 4 year old does stuff like this. He has an imaginary friend "jim" that does all the naughty stuff. I give him 3 chances to fess up the truth,then if he still continues to lie he will get a punishment. So far it has worked like a charm,but other times he insists Jim did it,sometimes it freaks me out because he is sooo convincing. I sit and think is there a real ghost in the house LMAO. Then I snap back into reality and think hmmm my son is smarter than I think.

Ha, ha. I know that syndrome. I think the best way to handle it (although I admit I forget all the time), is to not ask "Who did this?" or "Did you do this?" in the first place. It's better to just say, "I see such and such happened, and this what I expect you to do to fix it". Although I sometimes get, "But I didn't do it." in response, I can then go into my, "Well everyone in this family has a responsibility to help out, so I still expect you to do it." spiel.