We often leave out information in instructions when we are confident that someone will infer it. The problem is that sometimes implying things can make you prone to a misunderstanding. But that’s not exactly what happened here.

Read on to see how OP and his friends saw an implied instruction as an opportunity to play a prank on his dad.

When I was a kid, I tended to take everything literally, so I definitely would have gotten away with this. Makes me chuckle imagining how my parents would react!

Following orders

This happened 20 years ago but my family still laughs about it.

My dad owned a painting company. I worked for him in various ways in high school and college.

I also got a few friends hired on for summer work too.

This kind of sounds like something cartoon characters would do.

One morning we were on an exterior job and my dad came by to check on the progress and speak to the foreman.

He told my friend and I to tape up the gravel stones next to the foundation and walked away.

I knew he meant for us to just cover the stones to protect them when we paint, but told my friend we were going to wrap individual pieces of gravel in masking tape until my dad comes back.

This would make a great TikTok video!

As my dad walks by he sees us taping individual pieces and loses his mind!

We had probably 25-30 little stones in tape.

He’s saying he wanted us to put a few strips of tape and paper over the gravel and is visibly frustrated by us and we are laughing.

I shared with my mom that we were taping individual stones and she really got a kick out of it.

When someone has known you since your childhood, you’re more likely to get away with doing things like this. It’s charming!

The foreman had worked for my dad for nearly 20 years at this point and had known me since I was a kid and knew that I did things to mess with pops all the time.

There was no fallout or blowback for my friend or me.

Is he upset he didn’t see the loophole or upset you messed with him?

I still remind my dad about this and he almost gets upset still saying, “I couldn’t believe what you were doing!”

Let’s see what people had to say in the comments.

This person got a much-needed laugh out of it.

True! Pranksters need to be prepared to be pranked!

There is a grey area there, but I don’t think this kind of prank can escalate toward felony pranks.

This comment actually made me sad.

This is the real offence. No redeeming yourself after this.

Pranking someone can give you fun and hilarious memories for the rest of your life!

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.