It’s amazing how fast some people decide who you are before even asking.

So, what would you do if you were out cleaning up your new backyard on a golf course, covered in dirt and sweat, and a group of golfers stopped to ask how your “employers” treated you?

Would you correct them right away and let them know it’s your house? Or would you see how long it takes them to figure it out?

In the following story, one homeowner finds himself in this exact scenario and decides to have a little fun with it. Here’s what happened.

I don’t work here, I live here.

In 2006, I found a great deal on a house on a local golf course. People bought it, lost their jobs, and the bank took it back.

It had sat empty for a couple of years, so it needed a lot of updates, and like a lot of houses, when it was built, the minimum was done on the yard that now has a couple of years’ worth of grass, leaves, and brush growth, not counting the parts that were never cleared to start with.

So after a 6-week interior remodel from Christmas till Feb, we finally moved in.

He got started working early in the morning.

As the weather warmed up in mid-March, I started working on the back yard.

I was working with an ax, chainsaw, machete, and other similar tools to clean up the mess. I had started about 7 that morning and had a pile of brush big enough to hide a car under by lunch.

I was also covered with dirt, mud, scratches, and sweating like a pig.

All morning, golfers had been coming by, and the majority of them never even noticed me.

The conversation started innocently enough.

I was taking a breather, getting a drink, and I was standing maybe 10 feet from the cart path when two carts of older gentlemen (most likely in their 70s) pulled in and stopped.

The two in the front had their balls close to where I was standing; the other two were a little further up the fairway. As I am standing there watching, one of the older guys starts up a conversation. “Looks like you have done a lot of work today.”

I smiled and told him, “Yes, I have made progress, but I have a lot of work left to do.”

Then, things got a little awkward.

He got off his cart, got a beer out of the cooler on the back, and asked me, “How do the folks you work for treat you?”

I laughed and told him, “They are a bunch of ********.” He laughed and brought me a beer out of the cooler, too. He was a nice old guy. His name was Robert.

It got to be a routine over the next month, every Saturday when I was out working, doing the landscaping, I would see them, and they always talked to me.

He was almost finished working when Robert approached.

Well, one Wednesday, in about the middle of May, I got off work and came home.

I actually teach for a living and I just grabbed a clean t-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts, and hopped on the mower.

I was about done when Robert and his friends came by. I pulled over by the cart path to say hi, and they stopped.

Here’s where everything finally made sense to Robert.

Robert took a look at me and realized I actually lived here, rather than working here, and said, “So this is your place?”

I laughed and said, “Yes, sir.”

I don’t guess many people living on the golf course did their own underbrushing and landscaping.

Yikes! That’s why you should never make assumptions.

Let’s check out how the readers over at Reddit relate to situations like this.

This reader brings a little humor.

Here’s someone who has questions.

This could be true.

Apparently, it can happen to famous people, too.

He handled this well!

It’s unbelievable that it took the guy that long to realize the truth.

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