The corruption of the best is the worst, because institutions built on trust fail hardest when trust is abused.
The medieval maxim. Institutions built on conferred trust — clergy, doctors, auditors, judges — do more damage when they fail than institutions nobody trusted to begin with.
In practice
- A safeguarding officer who abuses their position damages the institution more than an outsider could, because the protection was the reason for the access.
- An auditor's fraud costs less in money and more in trust than the fraud they were engaged to detect.