'Honesty is the best policy'

Honesty is an important concept, a shared sense of honesty and fairness is what allows us to function as a society. We must cooperate in order to survive, and yet cooperation means that some can take more than they give. In our attempts to balance the scales, 'honesty' is a crucial concept.

However I take issue with the often quoted phrase 'honesty is the best policy', because often it isn't. Many people have gained financially, socially or politically by careful use of dishonesty. Provided you don't get caught dishonesty would seem to be the best policy.

A short while ago I went to my local shop, and bought a can of cherry coke (price 55p). I didn't have any change, so I handed the cashier a £20 note. He hands me my change; several notes and some coins. I walk out of the shop with my can. I then notice that instead of £15 in notes and £4.45 in change I found I had £25 in notes and £4.45 in change. Clearly the cashier had given me a £20 note instead of a £10 note. I was out of the shop and half way down the street. The cashier had clearly not noticed his mistake. I could be reasonably sure I had 'got away' with a profit of £10.

So I was posed the moral problem: I gained nothing by going back and telling the cashier of his mistake. I gained £10 if I didn't. I almost kept on walking. Then I remembered my days working at a charity shop, and the stories my friends who worked in retail told. If the till is down the cashier is often blamed, might even be accused of dishonesty. I didn't know the cashier, he was clearly new. But I just couldn't face the idea that he, a person I'd never met before, would get in trouble for something I could so easily correct. So I walked straight back to the shop and told the poor man, who was clearly very embarrassed at the mistake, and very grateful I'd been honest.

Was this true honesty? Did I do the right thing? And just as importantly, did I do the right thing for the right reason? Is doing the right thing, because you know you'll feel guilty if you don't, true honesty? And does it actually matter why I did it? When it comes down to it, I know in my heart I turned round and sorted out the mistake, because I felt it was the right thing to do, and there was no way in all conscience I could do otherwise. Am I a bad person for even considering walking home with the money? Or is a virtue only virtuous if it holds fast against temptation?