Some people think they’re so smart. As if their trickery and manipulation will never catch up them. Eventually, though, these people always end up caught in their own web of lies.

Here are four reasons why honesty is the best policy, other than because your mother says so:

1. Deceit is transparent.
Most people can sense when a person is coloring the truth. Artifice often backfires.

2. You may fool someone once, but you can never fool her twice.
Also, people talk, but angry customers shout from the rooftops. If you develop a reputation for trickiness, you’ll never achieve your maximum potential.

3. It takes more energy to lie than to be honest.
Ultimately, success is about applying your limited energy in the right places. It takes creativity to be a good liar. Use that creativity and energy to make a better (and more genuine) pitch.

4. Karma.
I can’t explain it. I have no scientific basis for it. I just believe in it.

If you cheat people, bad things will happen to you.