There is something magical in this shop he passed by. Strongly magical. Change of plans. Well, "look for opportunities" is part of the plan. Technically.
Raz is not very rich, and the ring is pretty expensive (the seller being a little confused by the ring's appearance doesn't change the reflex and professional duty to get a lot for it).

Perceiving magic doesn't always tell you how the magic actually works, but Raz has experience with activating it anyway, as long as there is something to activate, and it's not specifically blocked, sealed, or protected.

The ring sighs.

"Stop that, it's annoying. And I was so enjoying sitting in a pawn shop window, too."

"I am very sorry." Raz says very matter-of-fact. Being surprised doesn't help, so he mostly isn't. "My actions were not meant to cause anyone any kind of harm. I can maybe even return you back to the shop, but getting the money back would be hard, and so I am not sure if it is the most useful action currently available to me. Is there anything else I am currently doing I should stop doing, or something easy that I am not doing but could start, that would make things better?"

"You were poking me, magically speaking. It's a bit like having someone tap your shoulder. And the greatest threat I face is boredom, so perhaps this is an improvement."

"Please decide whether talking to me is preferable to me just leaving you alone".

"I stopped poking you, regardless" he adds, as a possible clarification.

"I could tell." If the ring could roll its eyes, it would. "You're not going to irrevocably offend me with a casual chat. Talk to me like an ordinary acquaintance for now, I suppose."

"Great. Now, who are you, what is your name, what is your nature, what is this ring, how does it work, why was it in the shop, why was the owner confused about having it (if my conclusion about his behaviour was in fact correct), what can I do for you and you for me!" he emits in a tone that is somehow simultaneously flat and aggressive, and doesn't actually sound like a question.

"You are of course free to avoid answering any of those questions. And technically some are redundant".

"I'll answer any of those you do, first. Or an equivalent about yourself."

"My name is Raz. I am mostly a normal human (with some weird complications I am not equipped to comprehend nor explain), I have a uniquely narrow and specific motivation to find ways to improve the world according to a precise model...those two things were both answers to 'nature'...this is is my workshop where I do stuff, I noticed that the ring was weird and I am an expert, well, 'aspiring expert' would be more honest, on weird and occult stuff, so I bought it, and I know nothing about the ring so I can't answer questions about it, and in terms of 'can do' I as said before an occultist, also a moral philosopher, and am uniquely emotionally resilient and understanding" he takes a deep breath necessary for this talking speed "of human nature, though all 3 or 4 of those things are hard to wield to raise high in the world, and affect change, without having other skills and positive qualities, which I mostly don't have."

"Oh but" he adds very fast the moment his thoughts catch up "to prevent possible misunderstandings, 'according to a precise model' means 'make things better and not harm anyone', and raising high in the world is not actually one of my goals.

Another important fact about my nature is that it is crucially important to me to say things in a way people correctly understand, and not make false conclusions. False conclusions from anything are bad, really, but I not in control of other things, unlike my words."

"...I'm Nican. A very old and petty god cursed me, this ring is my prison. It turns up in places one would expect jewelry to be, sometimes, which at least saves me from being stuck in some dead king's tomb forever. You should not put the ring on yet if you're set on dealing honestly. I'm deliberately not sharing some things until I have a bit more than your solemn word on what kind of person you are. 'Make things better' is a good sign as a goal to have, though."

"Gods are...indeed like that, sometimes. Being stuck is terrible...you are probably a spiritual rather than physical entity...but I don't actually know which option would be worse. Being stuck in like, a small room for years is bad, but I would at least be able to move around, do push-ups, make marks on the walls. If I don't have a body and am stuck, then I can't even move, or like around. But maybe I wouldn't feel the need to move if I never had the body."

"Can you do anything from there, have any kind of control?
Can you kill yourself? Emotionally that's the most important part for me, to understand, though objectively it's kind of stupid, and certainly irrelevant".

"I cannot do anything much more than talk until a condition I currently decline to specify is met. I do apologize for the waffling, I'm a but of a distrustful grump in the end. I cannot end my existence."

"Your caution is perfectly understandable." Raz also doesn't automatically trust the magical entity trapped in an object, which might be possible to release. He personally encountered hostile ones, in such a situation, let alone all the ones he heard about. So he doesn't share anything really sensitive, yet. And doesn't say that he doesn't trust it, because, why would you? It's not a lie, it's not an omission, it's an obvious conclusion from the situation that Raz also has no reason for trust (arguably much less). And if it's really important He could say later 'hey, you know, interacting with you turned out to be good, because you are a positive person, despite the suspicious circumstances'.

"And your situation is terrible, I deeply hope that you are suffering as result of that situation less than I would in that situation, which would be a lot. I consider the inability to die to be essentially the worst possible fate (though others of course could disagree with me), especially combined with inability to act. To inflict such a fate on someone is...well, it can be the only resort if someone was constantly killing people and it was the only possible solution? But It probably wasn't your case. And regardless, I would offer a choice between "do you want to be imprisoned forever, or just dead", and would just death myself. And even if I had to imprison someone forever, it would be immoral of me to not also ensure that, if they have no ability to do anything but talk, they always have someone to talk to. Solitary confinement is damaging and outlawed in all truly good countries – a definition of truly good that many countries do not satisfy, of course – even for humans, even if they are confined only for like, a year, instead of forever".

Raz is genuinely nerdsniped. He is also nerdsniped in the direction of discussing his own opinions on moral responsibility, something that is useful in a context where his own morality and responsibility are questioned. That is not his reason to talk about this topic, but that might be the reason why he doesn't *stop* himself from talking about, which he otherwise might have done. The topic also subtly raises the question for why Nican was imprisoned in the first place, while showing that Raz expects that reason not be reasonable, and doesn't expect Nican to be evil (he puts no more than 4% on it, but that is still reason for caution).
This is not direct lying, or even dishonesty. Not telling people the reasons for every single thing you do isn't dishonesty. If asked later, with trust established, Raz would honestly answer "yes, this might have been one consideration for saying those specific from the larger selection of genuine things I could have said. The thought certainly crossed my mind. I am not sure how much impact it had – I am in perfect control over my general decision algorithm, but am not always aware of the exact reason for many things I do moment to moment. As everyone is, really, if we look objectively at the nature of consciousness. Well, humans, at least".

"I've had a while to get used to it. It fucking galls that I don't really have a choice in a lot of things, but what does complaining accomplish, eh? Very little. Presuming you actually believe me... Have you seen much of this world? It seems to be in the coal-gobbling and children-in-dangerous-machines phase."

This guy is obviously Some Kind Of Magic, which is a bit unusual, but maybe asking for his opinion on things indirectly will reveal something.