The Japanese investigators ask Pi for the real story, so Pi indulges them in another story. Which do they believe?

After Pi tells the investigators his story they are very skeptical. They are likely agnostic and are unable to see the better story that Pi presents to them. When they ask Pi for the real story, Pi tells them a dry, yeastless factuality where Orange Juice is replaced by Pi’s mother, the zebra is replaced by a Japanese sailor, the hyena is replaced by the French cook, and Richard Parker disappears. The investigators believe Pi’s second story and think that he created the version with the animals to relieve his conscience. All the characters in the first story have a place in the second except for Richard Parker and they the investigators believe that Pi is Richard Parker. They think that Pi placed Richard Parker in the first version of the story to take the guilt of his atrocities of of his conscience. In the first account, Richard Parker eats human flesh and in the second version, Pi admits to cannibalism. The Japanese men believe that this is the reason for the creation of the original story, to cover up the things that Pi was ashamed of doing.