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Free gifts are supposed to come with zero strings attached, at least that’s how most people define the word “free.”

One woman and her husband learned a hard lesson after accepting football game tickets from their longtime neighbors, who insisted they simply didn’t want the seats to go to waste.

What seemed like a generous, no-strings offer quickly spiraled into an expensive day out, complete with cancelled prepaid plans and a brutal parking fee neither of them expected.

Then came a thank-you text after the game, which somehow triggered an unexpected reply demanding $300 for tickets they’d been told were free from the very beginning.

Suddenly, a friendly gesture between neighbors turned into a financial gut punch.

Keep reading for the full scoop.

AITA for thinking we shouldn’t have to pay?

My neighbors, who have been lovely friends over the years, had season tickets for our local NFL team and were unable to attend a recent game.

They offered the tickets to me and my husband, saying that they didn’t want them to go to waste, never once mentioning that they wanted anything in return.

The couple jumped at the chance, then rearranged their whole schedule.

As my husband had never been to a game, we decided that it might be a good opportunity, since we would never, ever spend money on our own to do that.

We also cancelled other plans for that day where we had pre-paid for the activities, at a loss of about $100. But we felt that was a fair trade for the chance to go to a big football game.

But that wasn’t the only unexpected expense.

Unfortunately, we got hosed on parking, having to pay $125 for a spot because of the late notice and just not knowing any better, since we don’t typically go to things like this.

So today, I send a thank-you text to the neighbors, saying how we appreciated them thinking of us and sharing the tickets.

They replied by telling me that we owe them $300 for the tickets.

Now the couple is at a total loss.

I honestly don’t even know how to respond. I am so upset because if they had said that from the beginning, there is no way we would have accepted.

We just don’t spend money like that, especially when we really aren’t football fans in the first place and we aren’t wealthy.

The day is ending up costing us over $500 now, which is a lot of money for us to miss. And it’s making us feel different about our neighbors now.

AITA?

Oh no, they didn’t!

What did Reddit think?

The couple should be honest about their confusion.

If it were this user, these neighbors wouldn’t see a penny.

This couple is right to look at these neighbors differently now.

People don’t do things like this on accident.

Saying “we don’t want these to go to waste” and then asking for $300 later are two completely different offers, and in all likelihood, these neighbors knew that.

The neighbors had plenty of opportunities to mention cost before the couple canceled plans, paid for parking, or even walked into the stadium. Bringing it up only after a thank-you text makes the timing feel like a complete setup.

If there’s any silver lining to all of this, it’s that this couple now knows these neighbors are bad news.