“Don’t Eat My Food”: Secret Ingredient Ensures Thieving Roommates Get What They Deserve

Living with roommates isn’t always pleasant, and bad roommates sometimes get that moniker by engaging in theft. In fact, in one survey, 65% of UK students said that they have had their food stolen from university dorms, with the most popular foods being milk, bread, and leftover pizza.

This guy’s roommates turned out to be cheese bread burglars, so, to teach them a lesson, he stuffed the bread with pepperoni. What’s the big deal, you ask? Well, the thieves were vegetarians, so, when they helped themselves to the delicious-looking bread, they were treated to a meaty surprise.

A guy was tired of having his food stolen by his vegetarian roommates constantly

Image credits: Guillaume Issaly  / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

So, he decided to secretly stuff his food with meat and confront them after they eat it

Image credits: Marlene Leppänen / Pexels (not the actual photo)

Image credits: BotsAnonymous

Image credits: Mike Jones / Pexels (not the actual photo)

There are some solutions to stop roommates from taking your food

Thieving roommates can be a pretty common problem. After all, there are even people who steal their coworkers’ lunches, so, your food may not be safe anywhere. Luckily, the author of this story moved out shortly after and didn’t have to deal with his thieving roommates.

But not everyone has such luxury. Some people need to learn some tricks to keep their food away from swindler roommates. Food and travel writer Marge Perry has some solutions to avoid losing food to such “foodies”.

First, she says, don’t put your food or leftovers in clear plastic bags or clear containers. When the thieves see what’s inside, it makes them more likely to snatch it. Also, Perry suggests putting the food in such packaging where a seal needs to be broken, for example, a paper bag with staples.

The Student Food Project recommends more extreme solutions: either hiding your food or locking it away. They claim that if students really want to keep their food to themselves, they should hide it in their rooms, by their beds, or in other inconspicuous places.

If all the housemates have dedicated cabinets, people can lock them with a padlock. And for food that goes into the fridge, they might start storing them in bins and lock those too.

Some less serious suggestions from The Student Food Project include marking your territory with your food. That could be either putting lots of chili powder into your food so the thieves learn their lesson or sending videos of you licking your food to the group chat.

Image credits: Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

There are lots of non-meat foods – sugar, for example – that are surprisingly not vegetarian

Interestingly, some commenters pointed out that those roommates aren’t really vegetarians if they just pick the meat off of a pizza and call it “vegetarian.” Similarly, many other foods actually contain animal products that most vegetarians wouldn’t eat if they knew about them.

As a vegetarian, I had to learn this the hard way. In my first years, I ate jello, marshmallows, parmesan, and even gummies thinking that I was a proud non-meat eater. And while I technically wasn’t eating any meat, those foods still contained animal products: marshmallows, jello, and gummies all contain gelatin, which is made from the skin, bones, and hooves of animals. Some yogurt has gelatin in it too! And parmesan contains animal rennet, which is taken from the lining of a cow’s intestines.

Similarly, I’ve learned not to eat McDonald’s fries, since they’re fried in the same oil as their meat patties (they do warn customers that nothing on their menu is vegetarian, so there’s at least that). But other seemingly vegetarian non-vegetarian foods still catch me off-guard sometimes.

Like white sugar, for example. Some manufacturers use bone char in the refining process, making it non-vegetarian. Pre-made pie pastry sometimes can be made from lard, making it a no-no for vegetarians as well. Lard can be present in some tortillas and cornbread mixes, too.

But perhaps the most surprising are things like canned and refried beans, Worcestershire sauce, Caesar salad, and vegetable soups. The sauce and the salad dressing sometimes contain anchovies and the beans and soups are sometimes made with beef fat.

Ultimately, the label ‘vegetarian’ can mean different things to different people. To some, it may only exclude meats; they might be perfectly comfortable eating yogurt that contains gelatin or McDonald’s fries. Others may learn over time and exclude as many animal products from their diet as they can. One thing’s for sure: there’s no vegetarian police that’s going to come knocking on your door because you ate a non-vegetarian marshmallow.

Folks in the comments had ideas for an even better revenge: “Should stuff it with ghost peppers”

“They’re huge moochers”: people thought the thieves got what they deserved

When the guy finally told the roommates about the hidden meat, they were shocked

Image credits: Анна Хазова / Pexels (not the actual photo)

Image credits: BotsAnonymous

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