Borrowing something from a coworker usually comes with an unspoken rule of respect and responsibility.

But when one employee returned a damaged heater and tried to dodge any accountability, things got much more tense around the office.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

AITA for not wanting to pay for something I ‘broke’

So a couple weeks ago, I asked my coworker if I could borrow her office heater because it’s always cold in my office, and she said yes.

Fast forward to now (a couple of weeks later), she asks for her heater back, so of course I give it back to her.

But there was a big problem with the heater’s condition.

A couple of minutes after returning it, she sends me a message saying, “I cannot use this heater anymore. The plug is burnt. This heater was $50, can you help pay for a new one?”

First of all, I had no idea that the plug was burnt. Second, I bought the same heater she was using a while back, and it was like $30 on Amazon.

So the borrower tries to dispute their coworker’s claims.

So I go to her office and look at the plug, and it was like she said—one of the prongs was discolored, and the plastic at the base of the prong was melted a little.

I tell her that this heater shouldn’t be $50 because I bought the same one, like I said, for $30.

But their coworker fights back and insists they pay her what they owe her.

She went on to say that she’s in the middle of moving and didn’t have the money to buy another one, so she thought it was reasonable to ask me to help buy a replacement.

She said, “I kinda need it.” So I asked if she only used it at work, and she said, “Well yeah.”

I left her office after that and just said, “Ok.”

Still, the borrower feels like this wasn’t their fault.

I understand the “technically you had it while it melted” thing, but I would have been more willing to help if I knew the plug was melting.

Should I have given her money even though I didn’t know the heater was being damaged and she LET me use it? Or should I have told her no?

AITA?

This doesn’t sound like the mature way to handle this situation at all.

Redditors chime in with their thoughts.

It’s time for the borrower be an adult and own up to what they did.

The borrower’s priorities really don’t seem to be in the right place here.

This commenter isn’t buying the borrower’s story at all.

If $30 is the price of keeping the peace at work, then the borrower should be okay with that.

The mature thing to do here would have been to own up and take responsibility, but instead the borrower chose to nickel and dime their coworker.

In the workplace, fairness matters just as much as professionalism.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.