The world of gift-giving can be tricky, especially when expectations aren’t clear.

One person thought they were just keeping the tradition of quirky gift giving alive, only to find out his friend had changed the rules without telling him.

The ensuing awkwardness drove a huge wedge between them that wouldn’t be easy to overcome.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

AITA if I didnt get my friend an expensive gift ?

To keep things simple, me and my friend would always get each other gifts as a joke.

For example, he would give me a brand new Nike shoe box, but inside would be a bar of soap.

But then, without warning, everything changed.

This past Christmas, he genuinely got me an expensive cologne.

I was very grateful, but I was now stressed for his upcoming birthday in July.

He did his best to match the value, but his friend made it clear he fell short of expectations.

I ended up getting him a few shirts (it definitely wasn’t the same price as his gift), and he got extremely angry at me.

But he doesn’t find this fair at all.

Never once did he ask for something of the same caliber, but he argued that’s just how gifting works.

I ended up getting him a cologne as well, but I want to know — AITA for not originally getting him something on par with what he got me?

Now that’s one way to ruin a tradition.

What did Reddit think?

There’s no question in this user’s mind that the friend is the one in the wrong here.

His friend has way too materialistic of a view of gift giving.

This rigid philosophy pretty much sucks all the fun out of giving gifts.

What if his friend didn’t even buy the cologne with his own money?

The problem here wasn’t the gift, but his friend’s rotten attitude.

Gifts should always be about the thought behind them, not the monetary value.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.