To Be or Not To Be?

To Be or Not To Be HONEST.. is a very very difficult decision.
Its almost tortureous at times.
And lets thank our up-bringings and childhood impressions first, then the world around us today, for this. These two factors generally cook a neat contrast, and make one struggle for simple things in life; like being honest.
For many a decisions we need to make today, we need to make choices, and one of them might invariably be about being honest, or not being honest, to say.

You don't be honest, and you might get a good deal,
you might successfully back-stab someone and move on,
you might enjoy a lil bit of taxfree money,
you might effortlessly get through some selections,
you might distance yourself from the dreaded legal hassles,
you might deceive someone for life without his/her knowledge and still enjoy their association,
you might come clean of some well deserved accusations,
you might avoid giving all those justifications,
you might be politically correct,
you might enjoy a materially rich life, and let others lead the same too..
And all this comes at a very little price, you lose a little peace and a tiny piece of your mind.

Be honest, and what do you get?
A 'pat-on-the-back', a clear conscience and yeah, may be a couple of missed opportunities, a bucks lesser in your purse, and a few lost friends (so-called?). You see a lot of others whizz past you in the race of life. You might get into the self-doubt dilemmas, you might want to regret being on the right path.
And if all's well, you have the peace of mind, and a materially rewarding life too, where all your possesions just trigger pride and bitter sweet memories of the toil that went in acquiring them.
You can meet everyone's gaze and rightfully pass on the baton to those eager to carry it forward.
Surprisingly, there's little to say about the benifits of being honest, but little said, it still stands big. Its more intangible, than tangible I think.

So the confusion still looms, like opting for an ideal investment plan, do I take the short term benifits and be happy, or invest for a bigger cause?

Lets add to this confusion by quoting this, which again boils down to being or not being honest..

Satyam bruyat, priyam bruyat, na bruyat satyam aapriyam..
[ Speak the truth, and speak such that it pleases (others), but don't speak the truth which is not favoured (by others)..]