When you have some type of disfigurement, you can expect that people will be curious about it.

What would you do if you got tired of people always asking how your fingers got removed?

That is what happened to the young man in this story, so he started making up fake stories.

Now, he’s wondering if that was the wrong thing to do. Let’s read the whole story to decide.

Aita for giving all of my coworkers a different reason for why I have missing fingers?

I have three fingers missing on my dominant hand.

It’s fine. I can type and everything and even manage to tie my shoelaces most days (and on the days I can’t, that’s the dyspraxia).

However, I won’t deny that it looks a bit odd to most people. I only have my fourth and fifth fingers so my hand looks a bit like a child’s drawing of a rabbit, and not a good one.

I can see why this would be uncomfortable.

I’m used to people asking about it, usually after staring for a good minute or two, but I still find it annoying.

I really don’t get why you’d think it would be an OK thing to ask someone about, but hey. I wasn’t raised in a barn.

If that’s what works for them.

Usually I nip the questioning in the bud by just explaining the truth from the get go and assuming that enough people will gossip about it that the message will spread by the end of the day (it always, always does).

Anyway, I started a new job about a month ago, and I honestly could not face going through that same cycle again.

Having a good sense of humor is always a positive.

I felt like the time had come to not play into it any more and to make something out of it – and I decided to make myself laugh.

When the first new coworker asked about it, I completely lied and told her that I chewed them off as a baby.

While funny, it might come off poorly to new coworkers.

I then decided to tell the next person who asked that I cut them off with a plastic knife at a picnic, and the next person that I was born with six fingers and they removed too many, and so on.

All genuinely ridiculous reasons but I’m a good actor and they actually believed my stupid lies.

It’s not like people are going to call him a liar.

I didn’t expect them to (a plastic knife… through bone?!) but there you go. Maybe they just thought there’s no way I’d lie about how I lost my fingers.

Within about 3 days, I learned that my coworkers had been arguing about the actual reason and it seems like a lot of them now actively dislike me for lying to them.

Hopefully, he can turn this into a positive experience for everyone.

I’m probably going to have to make some cupcakes over the weekend with my super cool 3D printed adaptive whisk to get back into their good books.

Anyway, I told this story to my brother today and he told me that I was a jerk because I caused tension within the office on my first day and made people feel stupid for being gullible and believing my lies.

Why is it rude to ask someone about something?

My argument is that I’m not the jerk because they were asking a rude, albeit common, question and because I didn’t do it with the intention of deceiving them, I was just honestly fed up of the question and didn’t think they’d think I actually severed three fingers with dental floss when I was 3.

I’ll accept my judgement, though.

AITA?

Honestly, he kind of is. People ask each other questions to get to know each other; it is normal and good.

Let’s see what the people in the comments on Reddit have to say about it.

Now this is a funny story.

Exactly, of course people are going to be curious.

Here is someone who thinks he handled it well.

Everyone has a different sense of humor.

Here is someone who thinks it was funny.

What an awkward situation.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.