There’s always that one coworker who complains so much that you wonder how they’ve made it so far in life.

So, what would you do if someone spent the entire day whining about camping conditions, then demanded a shower in the middle of a thunderstorm? Would you explain why they have to wait? Or would you pull a prank on them to teach a lesson?

In the following story, a group of coworkers on a camping trip encounters this situation and decides to pull a fast one on the complainer. Here’s what they did.

Camping revenge

At one point early on in the partnership, we had an intern (paid). We’ll call him ‘Santo.’ For clarity, the other main players are ‘Todd,’ ‘Megan,’ and ‘Mary’ (me, I’m Mary).

We arrived at a show, and to say it was disorganized is a bit of an understatement.

We gave them all our information for camping, and they just didn’t reserve enough camping spots for the reservations they accepted.

They tried to warn Santo that there would be no services on-site.

We ended up putting the RV in the middle of an unused field for the duration. It was only going to be for 3 weeks, but this meant there were no RV services. No electricity, no sewage, no water.

It was fine. We have a generator, and we’re very close to a shower house and restrooms. Mary’s parents lived nearby and were willing to help/host if we needed.

We had told Santo more than once that there would be zero services, but he either didn’t understand or didn’t want to understand that the RV would basically be a hard-sided tent.

We told Santo many times, couldn’t have been clearer, that showers, bathrooms, etc., were in the shower house at the other side of the field.

On day one, Santo started complaining.

Well, during setup, Santo had been complaining all day. The heat, the amount of work… basically, everything was something to complain about from him. He was making a crappy situation into an unbearable one with all the complaints.

We were not happy either, but it is what it is sometimes, and you get used to making improvising fun as a way to deal with the crap that comes up.

At the end of the day, it started pouring rain. Santo announced he wanted a shower and asked when we were going to hook up the water to the RV.

At first, he didn’t believe them.

Todd, without missing a beat, says, “As soon as someone climbs onto the roof to open the water collection cistern.”

Santo says, “What cistern?”

Megan replies, “The one on the roof for rain collection so that when you’re camping without a water connection, you can still have water.”

Santo, skeptically, “Why have I never heard about this before?”

He finally gave in and prepared to climb the ladder.

Mary answers, “Because we’ve always camped in places with connections. Haven’t you ever noticed the crank in the roof of the bedroom? That’s to turn the water supply from hose to cistern.” (There is a crank in the bedroom ceiling; it’s to deploy the TV antenna.)

This goes back and forth for a bit, and Santo finally believes that there’s really a cistern and he really needs to climb up and open it if he wants a shower.

He took off his shoes, rolled up his pant legs, and stepped out into the pitch-black night and the pouring rain.

At least he got his shower.

When he turned back one last time and asked, “You guys aren’t screwing with me, right? There’s really a cistern on the roof I have to open to get a shower?”

All of us, “Nope, we’re screwing with you, but hey, how’s that shower?”

For the record, we admit we’re jerks, but we were never going to let him climb on the roof in the rain and in the dark.

Wow! They sure got him with that one.

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit think about their prank.

This reader feels like they missed something.

Good question.

For this person, it’s a prank more than revenge.

Here’s someone who enjoys the story.

It must’ve been hard not to laugh, because they got him good.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.