Being honest with oneself

Anyone who says "I'm too busy" might wonder what a free hour would reveal. Yaakov spent twenty-two years away from his parents, yet for most of that time he was doing exactly what they had told him to do. So why does the Gemara in Megillah count all of it against him, and why does Hashem punish him through Yosef? Rav Moshe Feinstein comes at it through a different question, about why his parents sent him to find a wife only after Esav threatened him. A man at an esrog stand makes the point in one line.