If lying got you rewarded, the reward is also a bill. You’ll pay it next time you want to be believed.

A lie that works looks free, because the cost is not charged at the moment of purchase. It gets billed to a different account: the next time you need somebody to take your word without checking it. Credibility behaves exactly like that, spent in one place and missing in another. By the time you need it back, you cannot explain where it went.

When a lie has already worked, correcting it late is still available. Awkward now is cheaper than unreliable forever. If that is too much, at least notice the cost and stop there.