Dan Ariely, a behavioural economist has wriiten a book The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty. He says we like to think of ourselves as honest. Yet in reality we all cheat. Our behaviour reflects two conflicting motives  — we want to feel good when we look in the mirror. Yet we also hope to benefit from cheating. The result is that we cheat just a little  — not enough to dent our self-image. Very few people steal to a maximal degree.