She bought an espresso machine to escape her office's 'awful coffee.' Then a coworker put up a $1.50 QR code beside it and refused to budge

But first, coffee! An employee who goes by u/daintilyvarious on Reddit probably thought of this popular social media punchline when they bought a second-hand coffee machine to combat the “awful coffee” at their office. The worker got the machine at a discounted rate and let their coworkers use it whenever they needed a caffeine fix. However, things went off the rails when a colleague started providing premium coffee supplies in exchange for $1.50 per cup. At first, the employee who'd bought the machine tried to negotiate a fairer deal, but when the co-worker refused to listen, they made the ultimate decision. The post was shared on September 18, 2026, and it has received 13,000 upvotes on Reddit.

Coffee came with a catch

At first, it seemed like a harmless gesture when the co-worker started bringing “nicer beans, oat milk, and syrups” to make coffees for everyone. But the other day, when the machine’s owner went to get some coffee, they noticed a QR code attached next to the machine, charging people $1.50 per cup.

The co-worker had already made about $70 by making coffees in this machine. The employee told him they weren’t comfortable with the pricing, especially because he brought in the espresso machine for free. But the co-worker lambasted them back, saying the charges were for the ingredients he bought with his own money.

The office brew battle

The employee even tried to sort out the conflict with a logical solution. They suggested that everyone contribute some amount for the supplies instead of paying $1.50 every single time. But the co-worker argued it was unfair because everyone had different amounts of coffee per day. He was adamant about keeping the QR code and charging money. As a last resort, the employee unplugged the machine and took it back home. While some colleagues supported their action, others criticized them, saying they behaved pettily. “I would've happily chipped in for supplies. I just didn't like him deciding on his own to start charging people to use something that wasn't his,” the worker concluded.

Office resource wars

Workplace resource hogging, it seems, is quite prevalent even though it sounds a bit bizarre to imagine grown-up adults swiping away each other’s items. For instance, according to statistics cited by Furniture@Work, homeware makes up 13% of the most stolen items at the workplace, preceded by food & drink (16%) and Tupperware (22%). The list also includes tea/coffee (12%), mugs (10%), and money (10%) among other things. Although the author's coworker didn't literally steal their coffee machine, he definitely tried to generate passive income out of it. 

'Your machine, your choice'

Meanwhile, reacting to the Reddit post, u/amphibianbrilliant56 commented, "Wild. NTA. He also needs to be licensed and have a safe server if he's making all these coffees and profiting off of them. He's going to have to put this on his taxes and pay for it too. Not a smart person you work with; he seems to have a few screws missing entirely." Similarly, u/Edcrfvh said, "NTA. Your machine. You can take it home if you like. He used it to make money. He didn't even offer you a share of the profits because he was definitely making money. Was he expecting you to pay as well? Probably."

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