Co-worker kept stealing an employee's lunch — so they hatched an ingenious plan to teach a lesson

We often hear about children getting their lunch stolen at school. However, these antics are not limited to younger folks and schoolchildren. There are times when adults feel like swooping in secretly to eat someone else's lunch at the workplace. u/GraceBreezy21 took to Reddit to share how a lunch thief at their office got a fitting lesson that ultimately stopped their antics. "A coworker kept stealing my lunch, so I started leaving fake leftovers to teach them a lesson," the person wrote on the top of their Reddit post. 

The Reddit user shared that they have a fridge at their office where employees store their meals for lunch hours. But the person was stunned when the lunch they brought from home started to go missing over months. "I knew it wasn't just a mistake because my containers would be emptied and left behind," the post read. "I tried labeling my food, hiding it in the back of the fridge and even bringing super spicy food to deter them but nothing worked." When the victim of the lunch theft had enough of it, they had an idea of how to stop the person at the office.

"I started bringing in containers filled with random, disgusting canned dog food disguised as chili. Another day, it was mashed cauliflower dyed bright green. My masterpiece was a container of jello mixed with tuna. I labeled everything as usual and waited," the person continued. As expected, the lunch thief stopped their activities within a week. None of the office colleagues confessed who was behind all the thievery, but the Reddit user overheard someone complaining about feeling sick all day after lunch. "I couldn't help but smile. Am I the petty one here or did they deserve it?" the Reddit user asked the community, wondering if the thief deserved the punishment or not.

The Reddit community promptly sided with the person and mentioned how the lunch thief had it coming for them. u/oohwowlaulau commented, "At work, my co-worker's lunch kept going missing. Then one day someone got sick after eating lunch. I found out that my co-worker had a chef friend who had these extremely spicy drops. He put four drops in a sandwich. You are supposed to put two drops in a gallon of chili." u/I_Grew_Up joked, "If I caught someone stealing my lunch I would say nothing and just start dosing it with colloidal silver until they turn blue and then I would set my ringtone to 'Blue' by 'Eiffel 65' to always constantly remind them I knew it was them and I did this to you."

u/Thomisawesome remarked, "I can't understand how so many companies take a blasé stance on employees stealing food. If the employee was caught taking money out of someone's desk, it would be a huge problem but a sandwich?" u/Lopsided-Bench-1347 added, "One thing I learned way back is to never complain or tell anyone that your food is being taken. The company won’t do anything and you will be the bad guy complainer. Plus you could get into trouble for trying to make someone sick. The sick person can’t complain without admitting theft and even if they do, you had plausible deniability for not knowing as you never said you knew."