Bending the rules to your own benefit is selfish and wrong-headed

But sometimes it's downright friggin' hilarious, like when you hear about Sad Sacks like this guy...

An MTA (that's the Manhattan Transit Authority) manager claims an inflatable doll that’s been riding shotgun in his Kia Telluride is there “for the company” - and not to skirt HOV restrictions, as his coworkers suspect.

Giulio Divirgilio, a general superintendent at the MTA Buses department, pulled into his Brooklyn office building early Wednesday morning with the blown-up dummy plopped in the front seat like “Otto Pilot” in the 1980 comedy “Airplane!”

Confronted by The Post outside the East New York building, Divirgilio denied he had the inflatable suit-sporting businessman in tow to illegally cruise in lanes reserved for high-occupancy vehicles.

“I don’t use it for the HOV,” the $122,000-per-year government official insisted. “I use it for the company.”

Pressed whether the dummy’s express purpose was in fact to cheat the HOV, Divirgilio replied: “Have I ever lied to you?”