The Cost of a Small Lie Integrity isn’t chicken feed

A woman walks into a butcher shop just before closing and asks, “Do you still have chicken?”

The butcher opens his deep freezer, pulls out the last chicken he has, and places it on the scale. Two pounds, he says.

The woman looks at it, then at the scale, and asks, “Do you have one a little bigger?”

Thinking quickly, the butcher takes the same chicken, pretends to put it back, then pulls it out again. But this time, as he placed it on the scale, he slyly presses his thumb down on the pan. The weight now reads three pounds.

“That’s wonderful,” the woman says. “I’ll take both chickens, please.”

And just like that, the butcher’s little trick backfires. He tried to be clever. He thought he was outsmarting the customer. But in the end, it wasn’t her who got caught. It was him. Because now he had a bigger problem than just selling a chicken. He had to face the truth. He had none.

That’s the lesson. Integrity isn’t something you can fake. The moment you trade honesty for a quick gain; you put everything at risk. Your reputation, your trust, and in this case, your entire business. What seems like wisdom in the moment quickly turns to foolishness. What feels like a small trick turns into a big mistake. So, ask yourself, are you playing the long game or are you pressing your thumb on the scale? Because in the end, the truth always comes out.