As the Israelites approached the land occupied by King Sihon and the Amorites, Moses contacted Sihon, politely asking for safe passage through his territory (Num 21:21-22; Dt. 2:26-29).
One question that arises here is whether Moses was telling the truth when he suggested that Edom and Moab had given the Israelites safe passage through their territories (v 29). Numbers 20:19-21 suggests that the Edomites had not been receptive to an offer of this kind from the Israel.
It's possible that Moses was withholding information in order to give the Amorites every reason to accept Israel's request. Remember that 40 years before, Moses had not told Pharaoh the whole truth all at once when he approached the Egyptian ruler to get permission for the Israelites to worship God in the wilderness (Ex 5:1). Pharaoh was given every opportunity to agree to Israel's request before he reached a point of no return.
If Moses was shading the truth, was it right for him to do so? Not necessarily. Here it is helpful to remember that when the biblical narrative reports that someone did something, it usually does not comment upon whether that thing was right or wrong. It is easy to assume, mistakenly, that when a biblical "hero" does something, that thing must have been right. But the real main character in the Exodus narrative is God, and it's his grace that is a main theme, not the moral examples of the main human characters.
Like Pharaoh, Sihon did not accede to Moses' request. Deuteronomy 2:30 tells us that "God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate." God was giving the new generation of Israelites their own "Exodus experience" and sending a message to the surrounding nations, as he had 40 years earlier. Soon he would part the Jordan River for the Israelites, as he had parted the Red Sea for their parents (Joshua 3).
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