There’s a famous story (I forget who the two rabbonim were) where one Rov (a famous tzadik) was attracting an ever larger and larger congregation whereas the other rabbi in town kept losing congregants. So the Rabbi who was losing his people complained to the other Rov about him stealing his members. The popular Rov said he agrees its a problem but he doesn’t know what to do since new people keep joining his shul even though he isn’t soliciting or otherwise doing anything to try to attract them. So the other rabbi suggests to him that at his next Shabbos drasha he should admit to his congregation that he’s a nobody and not worthy of being their rov.
So he agreed to this plan, v’kach hava, that Shabbos he cried during his drasha and told everyone he really was nothing special and unworthy of such a large congregation given his not being a great person, etcetera. But lo and behold the next Shabbos his shul doubles in size and more people than ever before join his Kehila and accept him as their rov.
The next week the other rabbi comes complaining to him more bitter than ever that instead of fixing the problem he took away more people than ever. The ever popular Rov said he doesn’t know what more he could do. He tried to discourage people from coming and instead they thought he was being supremely humble and now even more people were joining him.
So the other rabbi tells him he has a solution. The next Shabbos he should announce what a great Rabbi and tzadik he is and that’ll scare away some of the people. To that the Rov responded he cannot do. “I may be no tzadik, but a liar I certainly am not!”