The paper considers deception as an artistic technique in the Buryats’ heroic epic poems – uligers. As a result of his analysis of situations in which an epic hero is acting the author arrived at a conclusion that deception often functions as method of struggle. The method is resorted to both by protagonists and antagonists. Striving to defeat their enemy personages use not only their material weapon (club, bow, spear), but also such a mental and psychological «weapon» as cunning. In these cases, positive heroes can be deceived due to different causes: fear of losing a reputation, reproaches of elder relatives, unexpected treachery of «one’s own» people, etc. Analysis of deception as an artistic technique in uligers contributes to revealing the standards of behavior acepted in the epic world.