People end up in positions where they have to break their own moral compass all the time, even if they are generally honest people. I'm not condoning it but I do have some understanding of unfortunate situations.
Where I grew up, people were far too judgmental to make honesty the right call in a lot of situations where it really shouldn't have been a problem.
If I had broken my laptop and was honest about it, they'd have gossiped about me, a child, as if I should have the sensibilities of an adult. They might have also gossiped about my parents. They wouldn't worry too much if I overheard—perhaps even making a point of it to 'teach' me something. They definitely wouldn't worry about their kids overhearing it, and then I'd have to deal with them judging me too (read: using it as an excuse to try to bully me). If one of their own bullying kids was the reason my laptop was broken I'd have gotten to deal with being called a liar on top of it all, which would have been an even bigger excuse to try to bully me.
Thing is, if I'd have broken it, I'd have done odd jobs and saved allowances to repay it. That wouldn't have changed anything about the community response, though.