A customer entered a shop that sold truth. The clerk asked whether he wanted partial truth or the whole truth. Proud of his courage, he chose the whole truth and was directed to another counter.
There the salesman warned him that the price was extremely high: anyone who bought the whole truth would lose his peace of mind for the rest of his life.
The customer left without buying. He discovered that what he had wanted was not truth at any cost, but truth that would leave his defenses and unquestioned beliefs intact.
Source: Anthony de Mello, “The Truth Shop,” The Song of the Bird, printed pp. 108-109 (PDF pp. 126-127). Retold.
What it argues
People often praise truth in the abstract while quietly negotiating a limit on what it may cost them. The real test begins when a fact threatens identity, comfort, or belonging.
Use it for: intellectual honesty, ideology, self-deception, and belief revision.