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When It's Not There, Say You Don't Know

Relax. We'll talk through this in plain words — no textbook voice.

What you'll walk away with

  • Understand saying you don't know when it's not there, without any of the scary mystique
  • Get hands-on practice trying it yourself
  • Learn to dodge hallucination and secret leaks with a smile

A good RAG doesn't mean it always has an answer. It means it can honestly stop when the answer isn't there.

Let's think about this for a second

"I don't know" isn't a failure. Lying to the student is. Decide ahead of time what to do when nothing's found. Keep the line short — "Not found in these notes. Double-check the file name." Then stop. Don't search the web. Don't reach into your own head for extra facts. The user might get annoyed, but a made-up answer will annoy them a lot more.

Let's connect it to everyday life

Test question — "Does the school canteen serve chicken?" If it's not in the files, say not found. Don't say "Probably — most canteens do." In the UI, show a gray "not found" state instead of a green success one. Honesty builds trust. A pretty lie only gets a laugh once — after that, nobody trusts it again.

Let's try it hands-on together

text
If no chunk is close enough:
  say: “ဒီမှတ်စုထဲမှာ မတွေ့ပါ။”
  show: which files you searched
  do not: guess, search the web, invent a quote
You should see
You'll be able to safely stop on a question that comes up empty.

5-minute try-it

Write 3 questions with no answer in your notes. For each one, note what it should say — and what it shouldn't.

One quick warning

"It might exist" is not a citation. It's an escape hatch — keep it out of your RAG.

Easy traps

  • Dressing up a missing answer in pretty sentences instead of admitting it
  • Telling the user to just Google it when nothing's found

Now try it yourself

Write 3 questions with no answer in your notes. For each one, note what it should say — and what it shouldn't.

You'll know it worked when: You'll be able to safely stop on a question that comes up empty.

When It's Not There, Say You Don't Know | Thuta Learning