Not telling them is evading, plain and simple. And? We're all businessmen here and we all have an agenda in this negotiation, and there is no unidirectional m

Not telling them is evading, plain and simple. And? We're all businessmen here and we all have an agenda in this negotiation, and there is no unidirectional moral stricture to give up one's negotiating position for free in the hope that it will curry favor with the other side. Instead of all the wordsmithing in your evasive answer, wouldn't the better suggestion be to just go in with a number you have to have, and if they meet that number, you're fine. The risk here is that you'll underprice yourself and, candidly, if one is sufficiently unsure of one's position that one thinks one owes your counterparty a number just to be polite then one is immediately going to cave when they predictably wince and say "Ouch, that is more than I'm prepared to pay... but we're close."