Woman Uses Fish Sauce To Catch Tea Thief In Her Office, Thief Goes Crying To HR About It

Office drama is more common than you would imagine because people get up to all kinds of hijinks, especially if they think they’ll never get caught. One of the most common things workplace troublemakers do is to swipe a coworker’s lunch or snacks.

This is what happened to one woman who brought imported tea to have at work. She put a label on it that clearly stated it was off-limits, but a sneaky colleague still pilfered from her stock. Eventually, she had had enough and came up with a genius plan to ‘out’ the thief.

More info: Reddit

People who steal or eat other people’s lunches in the office are just asking for trouble because they clearly don’t respect the rules

Tea bag steeping in a floral cup on a pink saucer next to lavender flowers, hinting at a coworker tea thief at work.

Image credits: Leah Newhouse / Freepik (not the actual photo)

The poster mentioned that her office has a ‘take one, leave one’ food policy, except for items that are labelled

Coworker caught stealing tea in office kitchen with shared snacks and unspoken labeling rules at work.

Handwritten note on a kitchen cabinet warning a coworker tea thief not to take a personalized box of imported tea.

Text on screen showing a message about a coworker tea thief taking half the tea bags from a box in a week.

Hands holding a tea bag with other tea bags on a wooden surface, illustrating a coworker tea thief at work.

Image credits: Anna Pou / Freepik (not the actual photo)

The author mentioned that she is a tea snob and brought her own imported stock from the United Kingdom, which she labelled as off-limits

Office coworker caught as a tea thief with decoy tea bags soaked in fish sauce as a prank in the workplace.

Coworker reacting to tampered tea in office kitchen, complaining about strange taste like a fish tank.

Woman in casual clothes grimacing with frustration, portraying coworker tea thief annoyance at work environment.

Image credits: Polina Zimmerman / Freepik (not the actual photo)

Despite the poster’s label, someone had been taking a lot of her tea, so she decided to catch them red-handed by dipping some in fish sauce

Person saying a phrase about a coworker tea thief at work, mentioning a mug with their name on it.

Woman going pale and silent while talking about not seeing the label, depicting a coworker tea thief at work scenario.

Alt text: Office worker reacting angrily after a coworker tea thief prank involving a booby-trapped cup.

Text excerpt discussing consequences of coworker tea thief stealing from a labeled box in a workplace setting.

Text on a white background reading: So... AITA for basically tricking her into exposing herself? coworker tea thief work context.

Image credits: Realistic_Durian9988

The tea thief was soon caught, but got angry at the poster for her “malicious prank,” and some other colleagues felt that the author had taken things too far

The poster shared that her office is extremely easy-going when it comes to their food system. They have a take one, leave one policy where people can trade snacks for items that they want to eat. It’s only labelled stuff that folks have to keep away from, because that means it’s someone’s property.

It is a common workplace policy to label food items in the pantry so that people know which are theirs and others don’t take them. Some office thieves aren’t deterred even by such signs and they sneakily take snacks and food that don’t belong to them. This might end up causing problems for the other workers who may miss out on their lunch or meals as a result.

The poster was dealing with such a problem because she had spent a lot of money on imported tea and didn’t want anyone to use it. Unfortunately, a tea thief was in her workplace and used half of her box within a week. She was annoyed because she had clearly mentioned that nobody should take her tea.

If someone is pilfering your food in the workplace, there are a couple things you can do. If labelling the items doesn’t work, then the next best course of action is to keep the food in a locked area. Some employees even invest in a mini refrigerator so that they can keep their meals safe. If that also doesn’t work, it’s important to speak to the Human Resources team or to management about it.

Young woman sipping tea while working on a laptop, capturing coworker tea thief behavior at work.

Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio / Freepik (not the actual photo)

The poster didn’t think of speaking to her boss about the tea swiping incidents; instead, she decided upon a revenge plan. She soaked a few tea bags in fish sauce, dried them, and then resealed the wrappers. Her plan was so catch the thief red-handed in the grossest way and get them to out themselves.

Although this might seem like the best way to get back at a thief, it might also lead to a lot of trouble. Contaminating food as a prank may turn out badly if a person has allergies or other food-related sensitivities. If they get sick or have a bad reaction to the food, then it might become a bigger issue.

All in all, the OP’s plan was extremely successful. Her sly coworker got huffy about how the tea tasted fishy and was immediately outed as a food thief. She was so embarrassed that she tried to shame the poster by playing the victim and calling it a “malicious prank.”

Stealing people’s food in the office is more common than you’d imagine with around 18% of people admitting to having done it at least once. These workplace thieves definitely need to be put in their place in a way that will deter them from ever doing such things again.

If you have any creative ideas for stopping an office food thief, then drop those suggestions below.

Most folks sided with the poster and loved her idea to keep the tea stealer at bay

Comment discussing frustration with a coworker tea thief at work and avoiding shared food areas due to entitlement issues.

Comment on a coworker tea thief at work explaining the situation is funny and not dangerous, mentioning allergies and stealing tea.

Comment on a forum discussing a coworker tea thief at work, emphasizing stopping theft of others' belongings.

Alt text: coworker tea thief at work warning label on personal tea box in shared kitchen cabinet

Comment text on a forum discussing a coworker tea thief at work, explaining kitchen rules and lunchbox analogy.

Comment expressing frustration about a coworker tea thief at work who knowingly took someone else’s tea.

Comment on coworker tea thief at work stating preference for tea and mentioning acquired taste in casual discussion.

Text message on screen asking if half your coworkers support what you did while the other half think you went too far, coworker tea thief at work context.

Comment from user discussing shaming food thieves as a solution for coworker tea thief at work.

Screenshot of a Reddit comment discussing potential consequences of a coworker tea thief at work.

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