Why Excessive Honesty is A BAD Policy

“Honesty is the Best Policy” – Benjamin Franklin

Benny was generally a smart dude, but let me share the views of someone even smarter.

“Honesty is the best policy. I also suggest, all armies and intelligence agencies should honestly reveal all their secrets to their enemies” – Sir Anubhav Srivastava

“Honesty is the best policy, so please honestly share your bank account passwords with me” – Sir Anubhav Srivastava

When Abraham Lincoln was a young lawyer, he had to handle two similar cases on the same day, both before the same judge and involving the same legal principle. In the morning case, Lincoln represented the defendant. He gave a compelling argument and easily won.

Interestingly, in the afternoon, he represented the plaintiff in a very similar case. This time, he argued with the same passion but from the completely opposite standpoint. The judge, noticing the contradiction and somewhat entertained, asked Lincoln why his opinions had shifted since the morning. Lincoln responded with a touch of humor, “Your Honor, I could have been wrong this morning, but I know I’m right this afternoon.”

The moral of this true story is: Even someone as virtuous as Lincoln knew that honesty needs to be practical, driven by what’s best suited for the situation. Regardless of what you true views are, sometimes you need to do what is needed as per the larger purpose.

Let me share another story from the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharat, which in my opinion, is the greatest story ever told in the history of humanity. For unaware western audiences, if you loved reading the Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones), you will be blown away by the depths that the Mahabharat goes into.

Anyway, so in the war of Mahabharat which happened between two ancient clans, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, the Pandavas, a group of 5 princely brothers and their army was fighting against the Kauravas who had the most unbelievably strong army and fighters at their disposal.

However, Pandavas had the support of Krishna, who was physically a human but was said to literally be the Supreme Divine. Krishna had agreed to become a charioteer for Arjun, one of the 5 Pandava princes, under the condition that he being a charioteer, would not physically destroy the opposition (which, him being the Supreme Divine could do in an instant.)

During the battle, Arjun’s son, Abhimanyu was ganged up on and killed by the Kauravas, primarily because of the deceitful actions of a man named Jayadrath.

Arjun was extremely upset and swore that he would kill Jayadrath the next day and if he wasn’t able to do so before sunset, he would set himself on fire and kill himself. Because the “Pandavas” represented a side who usually meant their words very seriously, the Kauravas saw this as an opportunity for Arjun to kill himself. Arjun was one of the best archers in the world, and if he did indeed kill himself, it would make it much easier for the Kauravas to win the battle.

During the next day, the Kauravas did their absolute best to protect Jayadrath. No matter how many times Arjun tried to go after him, the elite fighters from the Kaurav group kept engaging him and made it impossible for him to kill Jayadrath.

This went on for several hours. Krishna realized that Arjun was a man of his words and would indeed kill himself, if he was not able to kill Jayadrath before sunset.

So, he decided to counter deceit, with deceit. Krishna, used his divine powers to cause an unexpected Solar Eclipse.

When the Solar Eclipse happened, it seemed like Sunset had already happened. The Kauravas were elated and Arjun was heartbroken to realize that he could not kill Jayadrath. He went down from his chariot and began building a funeral pyre for himself in which he would jump in.

The Kauravas and Jayadrath really enjoyed this. Jayadrath, who was hiding all day, came literally in front of Arjun and started taunting and mocking him, that as he had failed to kill him before sunset, he would now have to set himself on fire, and join his son Abhimanyu.

Suddenly, Krishna used his powers again to remove the Solar Eclipse. The sun became visible again. It wasn’t sunset! Jayadrath became extremely scared. Arjun picked up his bow and arrow and immediately killed Jayadrath to avenge his son’s death.

So, what is the lesson here? There are some situations, where for the sake of the larger purpose or for your own survival, you may have to be deceitful. Even Krishna who literally represented “God” used deceit, because there was no other way to save Arjun.  

Clearly, too much honesty is not always the best policy, especially if the other side isn’t playing by the rules either.

“One should never be too honest. If one goes to the jungle, one will see that the straight trees have been cut but those which grow in a haphazard manner are spared. Thus, a man should be simple hearted but not a simpleton”

– Chanakya

Ironically, by declaring to you that honesty may not always be the best policy in SOME SITUATIONS, I am actually being more honest with you than many writers of such inspirational quotes. Now I just need to figure out whether this honesty of mine was a good policy….

Don’t use this as an excuse to justify dishonesty though, all I am saying is being honest every single time isn’t necessarily good for you. In RARE occasions, strategic deceit maybe required.  BUT being dishonest all the time or even most of the time will literally destroy your life.

Two kinds of people in the world will have a hard time living in the real world.

Who are so honest that their honesty does more harm to them than good, and they don’t even know when somebody takes advantage of them.

Those who are so dishonest that they are always seeking to take advantage of people at every chance.

Don’t be so naïve that everyone fools you but don’t be so manipulative that you think you can get away with anything. You are not above the laws of nature.

There is still such a thing called cause and effect. The more often you are dishonest, more you need to complicate things, the more you complicate things, the more you will lie and sooner or later you will either get caught or live your entire life with the fear of getting caught. In the end it’s not worth it.