Is being good same as never been caught doing wrong?

This is one of the lines of thought I had been thinking for last couple of months. Some of us pamper saying "I am a good person". People agree to what we say if they never found us doing any wrong deed and people disagree if we are caught doing something wrong in the past. Question here is, just because no one caught doing wrong in past, do we become good person. Is the nature of good defined by the society or the people surrounding us? Not very difficult to answer this question. Nevertheless I would like to grab this first chance to drive point home.

Society driven:
Society or other people can declare a person good or bad. I cant agree to the point that society can alone decide what is good and what is not. My gut feeling is with the way things are transitioning now-a-days we are not far away from the day when wrong would be declared by society as good and vice versa. I am reminded of a small story in this context

An old brahmin is taking home a goat as dakhsina for performing puja. Three thieves saw the poor fellow and wanted to have the goat from him for dinner. When the brahmin is on his way back home with goat, first thief stops him and asks why he is carrying a dog home. Brahmin dismissed his claim saying it is a goat. A while later, second thief encounters him and asks why he is taking a donkey home. Brahmin evidently taken aback by such comments, dismissed for second time such remark. Sometime later third thief stops the brahmin and asks what he is going to do with the mule he is carrying home. Brahmin was aghast by such remark and begins thinking that he is taking home a ghost which is appearing like goat, dog, mule and donkey to different people and discards the goat. Thieves make merry with goat meat for dinner.

Individual driven:
If society cant be trusted, can we rely on individual for deciding what is good and what is not? Not completely. A learned man who does not contradict with what is mentioned in dharma shatras can be trusted for deciding what is good and what is not. Even the learned sages like Gautama and Manu who have drafted Dharma shastras, clearly stated in them that if they by mistake contradict anywhere with Veda then the Veda takes overriding precedence. Problem with relying fully on individual's decision on what is good and what is not is, people have innate tendency to justify the wrong deeds with some emotional or logical reasoning to make them look good. Just the way it is shown in movies, hero turns into thief and it would be justified by circumstances or hero marries heroin against will of parents in the name of sacred love. But the justification does not make a wrong deed right.

Then what is good:
Vedas form the basis for the acts individuals have to perform as per the context they are in (varna as well as ashrama) and deeds which are banished. How ever as Vedas are not easily accessible to everyone, great sages who have digested gist of the Vedas came up with Dharma Shashtras. These are easily accessible information for every one to know what is right and what is not. These deeds when followed to the spirit can be termed as good acts.

Final word:
I wud like to conclude this article with a small story, which I probably repeatedly told to some of you folks.

A teacher has imparted all the knowledge required to his pupil and while sending them back home he wanted to understand how many understood the content clearly. He called his students and gave each of them a banana to eat with a precondition that it should be eaten when no one is watching. One student went into a closed room and sat under the bed while eating it. Other student went into a forest and ate it sitting on a branch of tree. Other student went into pond and ate it while swimming. But the best student did not eat the banana and came to the guru. When questioned abt it, he replied that he could not eat it as no matter how far he has gone, there is God Almighty watching what he is doing. Guru felt proud and declared thats the gist of the education he imparted and so he is extremely confident that his student will not perform any wrong deed anytime as he knows clearly that God i watching him all the time.