Try and Exception not properly working with xpath

[sumandas89]

This is a small code segment of a program and below the output is given -

    try:
        print('li 8')
        lim = driver.find_element_by_xpath('//*[@id="names_load_paginate"]/ul/li[8]/a').text
    except:
        lim = 6
        while lim >= 2:
            print(lim)
            list_string = '//*[@id="names_load_paginate"]/ul/li[' + str(lim) + ']/a'
            try:
                print(lim)
                lim = driver.find_element_by_xpath(list_string).text
                print(lim)
                break
            except:
                print("ex lim")
                lim = lim - 1

For this code segment I am getting the below output -

Output:
li 8
6
6
ex lim
5
5
ex lim
4
4
ex lim
3
3

I don't understand why the code is stopped executing at 'lim = 3', though it should raise an exception for 'lim = 3' and continue then to stop at "lim = 2" because XPATH - "//*[@id="names_load_paginate"]/ul/li[2]/a" is present only in the web page no any other list element are present there.
And if the following line

lim = driver.find_element_by_xpath(list_string).text

executed for lim = 3 then three values should be printed, because there is a print statement after the above mentioned line which is missing in output. Please share your views.