What seems like a harmless prank to one person can seem like an ultimate betrayal to another.

So, what would you do if you had a funny thought of emptying a friend’s fridge overnight, fully intending to put everything back in the morning? Would you laugh at the image in your head and move on? Or would you actually go through with it?

In the following story, one friend finds themselves in this exact situation and decides to go through with it. Here’s how it played out.

AITA for “stealing” groceries as a prank?

My friend and I used to be in a relationship, but we are just good friends now.

When we were together, I had a key to his place. Sometimes I’d stay over late and leave around 2 am to sleep at my place.

One day, at around 2 am, I thought it’d be funny to take his Costco haul he’d gotten that day. I’d take it home, he’d wake up to find his fridge almost empty, he’d know it was me and call me, and I’d bring it back and restock everything.

The friend was angry.

I live ten minutes away, so even if he was hungry, I figured I’d be back quick enough with his food. It was a harmless prank, or so I thought.

I thought it was funny imagining him opening his fridge in the morning, confused to find only his usual eggs and milk, not the recently purchased pounds of meat and cheese.

He called me around 7 am fuming.

Him: “You disrespected the trust I have in giving you keys to my place. It’s breaking a boundary. Your prank wasn’t funny – you stole my food. That’s my food, and I paid $200 for it. Your prank makes me look stupid. It makes me the butt of the joke. It’s disrespectful.”

Everything was restocked, but all was not forgiven.

Me: “I didn’t steal your food. I was going to bring it back and restock everything once you realized. I thought it was a harmless prank because you literally don’t get hurt in any way.”

Him: “I know you weren’t going to actually keep any of my food. I know you were going to come back and restock my fridge. My point still stands.”

So I came back with his food and restocked everything, as promised. I apologized for hurting him in any way, but I honestly didn’t understand why he overreacted. I still don’t.

Apparently, he’s still not over it.

It’s been about a year since that happened. We’re good friends now.

We talked on the phone the other day, and the prank came up, and I laughed at how stupid it all was. He instantly got serious and repeated again that it’s not funny at all, it’s really disrespectful, etc. It kind of ruined the tone of the conversation.

Is he overreacting and being too sensitive, or am I just not understanding?

AITA?

Eek! It’s easy to see why the joke would seem funny, but if the timing is off, it could be really annoying.

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit would think if someone did this to them.

Great advice.

According to this reader, they’d be upset, too.

This really puts it into perspective.

Here’s someone who can’t believe that he’s doubling down on it.

He needs to let this go. It wasn’t funny when he did it, and it’s still not funny now.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.