Some problems require a little creativity to solve.

So, what would you do if a business partner kept leaving food out in a shared workspace even after you asked them multiple times to stop? Would you just keep going about it the same way? Or would you find something that just may scare them enough to stop?

In the following story, the co-owner of a pottery studio faces this exact predicament and chooses the latter. Here’s how it all played out.

A mouse! Or was it..

I run a pottery business with a friend. We get on really, really well except… she is messy.

I’m messy too. We’re creative people, and it comes with the territory. But she constantly leaves food packets, like cereal boxes, honey, tea bags, stuff like that, in the teaching room.

We agreed from the start that this space isn’t for our work or our stuff. We agreed to keep it clean (as clean as you can with pottery). Despite this, she is forever leaving these food items out where people can see them, and I think it looks unprofessional.

Then, she came up with a plan.

I asked her several times to please put it into her room or the communal kitchen area. She does, and then it’s out again the next day.

I’m not proud of this, but I got so fed up that I decided to take a pin tool to the side of the cereal box that was left out, and I scratched and poked at it to make it look like a mouse had bitten through.

I even scattered bits of cardboard crumbs around to make it look convincing, and then I just waited.

That was the last time her friend left food out.

Several days later, she found the box and freaked out.

She was worried that a mouse had gotten into the cereal, and she had been eating disease-ridden cornflakes. I agreed that it was very concerning.. and that maybe leaving them out isn’t the best idea.. she threw the box away and since then hasn’t left any food items out.

I’m concerned that I couldn’t have spoken to her about her frustrated I was.. and that I had to deceive her like this… but seriously, clean up after yourself!!

Wow! That was actually really well-played!

Let’s see what the readers over at Reddit think about.

This person doesn’t think she had any other choice.

According to this person, she tried to talk, but it didn’t work.

Here’s someone else who thinks she tried.

For this person, it forced the change.

That worked like a charm, which is good because it didn’t sound like the friend was going to stop on her own.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.