Being truthful to oneself

Age : 4+ years

Vasu is studying in eighth grade and he is very good in studies. He listens to his teachers in the class very attentively and studies well at home too. His mother helps him with studies at home. He always stands first in his class. One day he had the final exam of mathematics and he had prepared it very thoroughly. His parents knew that since he works so hard he will score full marks in mathematics. When he was in the examination hall, he started answering the questions one by one very neatly in his answer sheet. He already knew those questions so he was very happy. But when he looked at the last question in the question paper, he was shocked, he did not know anything about that question and did not know what to do. He was getting restless as he was expecting to score full marks in this exam. He was thinking and looking around and somehow he managed to look at the answer sheet of another student who had done that particular question. He got tempted to copy the same answer on his own answer sheet, he started doing that also. But then he remembered one thing that his mother always told him, be truthful to yourself first and then to others. He realized that by copying this answer he is not being truthful as he is giving an impression that he knows that question himself but the truth is - he does not know how to solve that question. He immediately felt very relieved and erased what he had already copied and started checking the other answers that he had already written on the answer sheet. He felt extremely confident that what he did was the right thing to do. He came home and told the whole sequence of events to his parents. They were very proud of Vasu and told him that what he did was the only way of doing it right. They were more happy now than if he had cheated and got full score.