Some people have to learn the hard way that experience doesn’t always equal expertise.

So, what would you do if a long-time customer started bossing you around about how to do your job and ignored every warning you tried to give them? Would you stand your ground? Or would you follow their instructions and let reality do the teaching?

In the following story, a farmhand finds himself in this situation and opts for the latter. Here’s what happened.

You will stack the hay how I want it stacked!

I used to work for and manage a rural stockfeed supply shop that delivered hard feed and hay to many of the local hobby farms.

During the earlier year or two of my time there, there was a lady who, after some time, we came to a solid understanding that she could be a “prickly *****,” and we have since laughed about this incident. For the sake of keeping her identity safe, let’s call her Janice for this tale.

Now, this gal is somewhere in her mid-60s and has quite the boomer attitude when it comes to doing things. That fun old shtick of “I’ve been doing this since you were in nappies, so do it how I tell you.”

He started stacking the hay so it wouldn’t fall.

Well, this one fine summer, in the middle of a drought, she ordered a large batch of hay—60 bales. I drove out in the truck, and I knew I’d get a good workout putting these babies in her shed because the truck can’t get close to it.

Not a cloud in the sky to stop that sun beating down my neck as I unloaded the truck. 33°C, which is somewhere in the 90°F for you freedom unit-loving readers.

I start stacking the hay in her shed in a formation like this: |==| Then the next layer: =||= so the hay bales will interlock like brickwork and not fall over. Each layer is 6 bales. Two stacks, five high. 60 bales. If you need a bit more explanation on that… well, I don’t quite know what to tell you. Sorry.

The only problem was that’s not how Janet wanted it.

Janet comes running up, “You’re stacking it all wrong!” She tells me, “You’ll never fit it all in the shed.”

As I try to explain my plan, she talks over me and begins to gruffly comment something about “uppity young ***** who think they know everything.”

She pulls apart my stack and begins to stack the hay all in the same lines, looking something like this: ===

Though her plan wasn’t safe, he still followed her directions.

I already see the problem. Stacking 5 bales high like this will cause the whole stack to fall down on whoever goes to get hay from the top of it.

It’s dangerous. It’s stupid. It’s not safe.

So, I stack the hay just like she wanted me to. And I notice the stack is very close to someone screaming JENGA!

I tell her she can put the final bale up.

It didn’t take long for the stack to fall.

“No, I’ll feed this one out tonight, ” she says.

Happy that I stacked it her way, she waves goodbye. I get in my truck. I start the engine.

“Ohhhh ****!” I hear from the hay shed. I swivel my head and there lies poor old Janice, under 10 bales of hay that somehow fell on top of her.

He restacked it, but this time did it his way.

I promptly unbury her and call my boss. “Yeah, I’m going to have to re-stack all this hay.”

My boss: “She just won’t learn her lesson…”

As I restack the hay this time, I explain why I stacked it the way I did. And while she rolled her shoulder, wincing at the pain caused by her own stupidity, she says to me: “Glad one of us knows what they’re doing.”

Wow! Hopefully she didn’t get too hurt.

Let’s check out how the people over at Reddit feel about this story.

This person learned how to stack hay the same way.

Yet another person who knows how to stack hay.

This is sad.

They must’ve had a ton of fun.

It’s surprising she didn’t know. After that many years on a farm, you’d assume she’d know better.

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.