They say the best revenge is just living well.

That said, I think this would-be office prankster might be onto something.

At her office, there is a man who enjoys a good prank, and one day she was accidentally on the receiving end.

I (SML, F32) was the inadvertent recipient of a minor prank at work.

Let’s call the instigator Bill (M36).

One lunch break, Bill had decided to poke some holes in the top of a bottle of water, thinking it belonged to another colleague of his (who he occasionally had minor prank wars with).

Unfortunately, he accidentally picked my bottle of water instead.

She says she has no real problem with the guy or the prank.

Now I don’t mind a bit of fun at work, but I wasn’t really expecting this, as I’d had nothing to do with Bill thus far that would justify an unwarranted prank.

Bill himself was known to enjoy pranks a little more than was necessary.

However, they were generally harmless and he was actually very good at his job, so everybody just let it slide as if he wasn’t being mischievous, he’d be happy to help with whatever you were working on.

That being said, I can roll with a prank or two, so let’s get petty!

But, this time she made a big show of being angry.

After a liberal soaking of my blouse, I pretended to be very annoyed and “stormed off” in a huff, making a point of slamming my bottle of water in the recycling bin for added pissed off-ness.

The other colleagues in the break room, not used to seeing me react this way, were initially concerned that I was in a foul mood and came by my desk to apologise on Bill’s behalf and say it wasn’t intended for me and to please not make a big deal of it.

As they spoke to me, I informed them to keep it quiet but I wasn’t angry but wanted Bill to think I was.

They all promised to keep the charade going as, knowing I could be a prankster too, were interested to see where this was going.

When he apologized, she told him not to worry because her revenge prank was coming.

So fast forward two days. Bill’s not yet spoken to me as I’ve been giving him the stink-eye.

That lunchtime I bumped into Bill coming out of a meeting room. He took the moment to apologise, quite profusely, and I realised he’d been thinking about this way more than I was.

He genuinely seemed remorseful, even offering to buy me flowers and pay for any dry cleaning.

Fair enough, but I had to have the last laugh. I told him “apology accepted, thanks Bill.

Don’t worry about any of that, I’ve already set my revenge trap.” I added a nonchalant glance towards where his desk was, just for flair.

She watched him nervously inspect his things for days.

Bill was glad that I’d accepted his apology but was obviously on alert for anything unusual.

At least 3 times a day he’d inspect his desk, his car, his food, his coat, etc.

Then she told him there was no prank.

This is petty revenge, I obviously wasn’t going to keep it going forever! After a few days I went over to Bill’s desk and asked him if he’d found my revenge yet.

He nervously said no, at which point I burst out laughing and said “there wasn’t any, I just wanted you to think there was.”

Thankfully he saw the funny side and said that was the best “revenge” play he’d experienced.

He said he’d had his guard up even over the weekend when he was at home! We shook hands and all was forgiven.

Although I couldn’t resist a parting note, “hey Bill, guess you didn’t notice I loosened your water bottle cap, right?”

He instinctively went to check, saw me laughing again, and admitted defeat.

They laughed about it and he agreed she’d done well with her revenge.

Bill had told the rest of my colleagues at some point that afternoon so I got a few “I heard about Bill, well played” type comments throughout the rest of the day.

Since then Bill and I haven’t pranked each other, although he did pop by my desk one afternoon to ask if I had any extra packing tape.

When I queried what for, he said “eh, it’s best if you don’t know.”

I soon found out why, when the next day I walked into the office to hear another colleague of ours asking who the hell had taped his keyboard and mouse underneath his desk.

Apparently he’d spelled Bill’s surname wrong on an external memo so this was Bill’s revenge. I wasn’t implicated in any way.

Does Reddit love a subtle joke? Let’s find out!

This woman says it works on kids, too.

You’ve gotta love a boss who can roll with the punches.

This person is a bit jealous of a fun workplace.

If it’s on MASH, it must be funny.

Of course he did.

I’d say she’s found a hack, here.

Because this way you don’t have to actually come up with a prank.

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