Employee couldn't prove who his lunch thief was — until his special chili recipe loudly exposed the culprit to the whole office

Having a lunch box stolen at work erodes the basic trust, adds to the daily stress, and breeds paranoia by violating personal space. That's what happened to a person whose office lunch went missing for days until they used their penchant for spicy food to expose the thief. The person, who goes by u/jamesjaceable on Reddit, shared their story, which has since gone viral with 16,000 upvotes.

The notorious lunch thief

The employee used to bring lunch in tubs that they labeled with their name before placing them in the office fridge. "A coworker would sometimes 'not see' people's names on food and think it was theirs, so they would heat it and eat it and then apologize," they shared. The lunch theft would happen about once or twice a month, until they got fed up and decided to retaliate.

The petty revenge

The employee decided to use their love for spicy food to their advantage. The thief was lucky because they didn’t use The Simpsons’ Merciless Pepper of Quetzalacatenango, but simply a bag of "Ghost Chili Peppers." They started adding these peppers to their lunch every day. Once during the midweek, when their lunch went missing, the person was waiting for the thief to get a shock when they ate it. As expected, a colleague was sent home sick, and the following day that person took off because, apparently, the doctors had advised them to do so because of a stomachache.

HR got involved

For the next two weeks, the concerned co-worker refused to talk about it. Instead, they involved the HR and reported the employee for trying to poison them. At home, the employee ordered another bag of ghost peppers. This time, they put only one chili in a single tub. On Monday, when they were called in for a meeting with HR, they refused, saying they needed 24 hours to find the culprit. When the call for the next meeting was made, the employee entered it with their manager. "The long and short of it is I was told I could be fired for trying to poison the person who was stealing my lunch," the employee said. In response, the employee asked whether the co-worker admitted to stealing people’s lunches, and the HR agreed. Then the employee threw in the bingo card. "My liking spicy food shouldn't stop me from having it at work,” they said. The manager admitted that it was the co-worker who stole their lunch rather than the innocent employee for bringing what they liked for lunch. Everyone agreed that they were not liable for the co-worker who stole their lunch. Those present at the meeting also tasted the employee's lunch and agreed that while it was spicy, it was fine to bring it to lunch.

For a few days, nobody stole the employee's lunch. But then, it started happening again. The manager reported to HR, this time with evidence from the previous meeting, where the co-worker had admitted to stealing the lunch. The co-worker was fired the following day on the pretext of "theft of property." Meanwhile, the employee got their accounts squared with the coworker, but stunningly enough, lunch thefts continue at appalling numbers in workplaces across the country.

Lunch thefts are becoming common

Eating or not, tampering with another’s food is obviously unethical in an office environment. Yet, a survey by Zippia revealed that nearly half (47%) of workers have had food stolen from the office fridge, with drinks like sodas, coffee, and pizzas being the top targets. American Express OPEN also conducted a poll of 1,061 employees and reported that 18% of workers had stolen someone else’s lunch at work, per CNBC. Similarly, 39% of American workers admitted to being involved in office lunch theft, according to a study by Husky Lifestyle.

A lunch theft is not just an instance of disrespect for the worker but also a financial drain, given that the average American spends $2,746 per year on lunches. “It’s sad to think it’s gotten to the point where you need baby cams in the lunchroom to stop moochers from poaching their colleagues’ food!” Louise Carnachan, author of Work Jerks: How to Cope with Difficult Bosses and Colleagues, told Bored Panda, commenting on lunch thieves.

Netizens react

Meanwhile, Reddit readers supported the employee while calling out the ignorance of their HR colleagues, who initially tried to fire them despite no fault of their own. u/reasonwlogic said, "HR at your company needs to refresh on the laws. No way you should've had to have that meeting, the other guy should have been gone immediately." Commenting on their brilliant strategy to get even with the lunch thief, u/aurax_ said, “Smart! I love the bit where you swapped out the whole bag for a single one, so that you could share your chili with the HR to drive your point further.”

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