The story left untold can be evidence of care rather than a lack of anything interesting.

Someone who says little about their life is often assumed to have little life to speak of. Frequently the opposite is true: the stories they hold involve other people, and telling them would spend somebody else’s privacy for the sake of an entertaining evening. Discretion looks identical to dullness from the outside, which is one of its costs.

Give that person credit rather than pity, and ask about what belongs to them alone. If you are the one holding things, you are allowed to say that some of it is not yours to tell.