Tell me about a decision where the right call and the easy call were different — and choosing right cost you something. Walk me through it.

Anyone can claim integrity; a specific price is the evidence it was ever tested. Anchoring on the cost blocks the self-praise this question usually invites and forces a real dilemma — including a fair account of why the easy option was genuinely tempting.

• What exactly did it cost you, and who noticed?
• Make the case for the easy option — what did it have going for it?
• Did anyone advise you to choose differently?
• Knowing the price now, would you pay it again?

A named, specific cost — money, standing, a relationship, an opportunity — the easy option described fairly enough that the dilemma feels real, the reasoning laid out as a decision rather than a reflex, and no martyr glow in the telling.

The cost stays hypothetical or evaporates under a probe, everyone on the other side of the call is painted corrupt or foolish, the "right thing" happens to be perfectly self-serving, or they can't say what made it hard.