hdfx

After reading some articles with Tips and Tricks about salary negotiation, I found out that many of them advice to:

- Never reveal the salary you want

- Let the recruiter tell first the salary they are willing to pay for the opened position

But, everytime after a short chat with any recruiter he/she will ask my salary expectations. I assume this might sound simple stupid to some of you, but how do I elegantly refuse to tell him/her the salary I am looking for and instead ask the recruiter to reveal the budget for the position?

I mean, saying something like "I don't tell the salary I want, what's the budget for the current position" sounds rude to me, so in the end I end up revealing my salary expectation...

How would you handle this situation? Any other tips about salary negotiation are welcomed.