This happens in twin villages. Residents of either village will give you the same names for a shaman or smith, and they will tell you that your quest target lives there, but they will never tell you exactly where they are.
Even when said target is three tiles away from the villager you're addressing.
EDIT: They will point you to a quest target if you go close enough, but they haven't done so yet with the shaman and smith. It's possibly because they're not in their spawn point, but I'm not sure of anything right now.
{mod edit: updated title from [3.18...] to [3.81...] JP}