Be honest with yourself and those around you. Spare facing the mounting consequences by fessing up to your actions now. You will only save yourself much embarrassment and remorse and those you wronged will be more forgiving. Remember, honesty is the best policy and, in your case, the easy way out of a compromising situation.

Impostor jailed for fake Rembrandt

Telling lies back in August 2004 has landed Majed A. Ihmoud in prison two years later. The 53-year-old man, who presented himself as a member of the Saudi royal family and attempted to sell a forgery of Rembrandt’s painting “Man with the Golden Helmet” to a buyer in suburban St. Louis, was sentenced in early April to five months in jail as well as five months of home confinement.

Dressed as a sheik, Ihmoud asked the buyer, an undercover FBI agent, for $2.8 million for the fake Rembrandt. After he was apprehended, the impostor also admitted to trying to sell a pair of brass doors he alleged belonged to boxer Muhammad Ali for $130,000. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Drake informed the Associated Press that the doors never belonged to the famous athlete and were valued at a mere $10,000.

Ihmoud plead guilty in October 2005 to conspiring to commit mail fraud for his involvement in passing forgeries.