Summary
In an era where the boundary between creative fiction and cold reality was becoming increasingly blurred, Honesty - The Best Policy presents a biting satire of the literary world and domestic ultimatum. The story follows a struggling author whose creative well has run dry, prompting his wife to issue a ruthless decree: sell a story or find a 'real' job. Desperation drives him to a publisher with a peculiar mandate—they only buy 'true' stories. Seizing the opportunity, the author constructs a narrative by excavating his own suppressed history as a career criminal. He details a life of high-stakes robberies and narrow escapes, casting his own wife as his primary accomplice and partner in crime. As the publisher grows increasingly enthralled by the grit and authenticity of the tale, the author’s ego takes the wheel. In a moment of sheer competitive vanity, he attempts to one-up the fictionalized versions of themselves by claiming his wife was actually the more dangerous, 'dirtier' criminal of the two. This gambit for literary immortality backfires spectacularly when his wife, overhearing the character assassination, decides to intervene, proving that some truths are better left unwritten.
Synopsis
An author's wife threatens to send him out to work unless he sells a story. Finding a publisher who will accept only true stories, the author proceeds to unravel his own past: As a notorious criminal, with his wife as accomplice, he commits robberies, is pursued and captured, escapes, and eventually reforms. Excited by the story, the publisher prepares to buy it. Overcome by his success, the author announces that his wife had been a much "dirtier crook" than himself, and he is about to reveal the details of her life when she overhears him and spoils the scene.
