Just a thought that came to mind:

Even the most noble of us do blatantly lie, cheat and steal quite often.

I (and most people, too) do it all the time; but nobody bothers, because we do it openly. We either tell it right away that we lied, cheated and stole - because of something, giving credits as to why or from whom we did, and how that is improving things in some way or another.

That's the way to do what you did, the way most people tolerate it. I have seen the effort you have done. That's alright, it's not degrading or anything bad, just do tell it like it is.

Cheers, Sören