Guy Gives His Girlfriend’s Friend an Overly Expensive Birthday Gift, Which Turns Out That He Stole From His Mom

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
May 8, 2024 8:00 AM EDT

Birthday gifts can be quite an ordeal to manage for every single friend you have. It takes so much of your time, effort, and of course, money, to come up with the perfect gift for all of your friends, not to mention it is an ordeal that repeats itself every year. But even though it is annoying, people love giving gifts, because it shows the people closest to you how much you love and care for them.

What happened with the birthday gift in this Reddit story is something else entirely, and we can't say we understand the logic behind the person giving his girlfriend's friend a gift, or should we say, stealing the gift from his mother just to give it to his girlfriend's friend for her birthday.

We could try to explain, but it is better that you simply scroll down and read the entire story. After you are done reading, scroll back up and click here for a story of a husband trying to divorce his wife.

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  • 01
    UPDATE: My friend's boyfriend gave me an inappropriately expensive birthday gift (turns out he stole it. From his MUM.)
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 02
    Original post here To summarise the original post: My (26F) friend's (26F) perpetually broke boyfriend (28M) gave me a gift for my birthday. It initially looked like a thoughtfully chosen, normal gift with a lovely connection to a recent trip to my
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 03
    mother's homecountry I took in winter, but after growing suspicious of the quality of the materials, I realised that it was in fact an antique worth hundreds of Euros. Theories as to what happened included him not being aware of the item's value, possibly having bought it
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 04
    from someone who didn't know what they were selling, or him trying to somehow hurt his girlfriend/my friend and/or trying to hit on me in a bizarre, inappropriate way.
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 05
    I ended up texting my friend and telling her that I had researched the gift and discovered it was worth a very inappropriate amount of money. She was VERY surprised by the entire situation, especially considering her boyfriend (now ex, but more on that
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 06
    later) is perpetually broke and makes her foot the bill for their shared lifestyle. She came over to my place and together, we called him on speakerphone, where she demanded some answers. Long story short: He STOLE it. From his OWN MOTHER.
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 07
    He's still being a bit shady about some details, but we managed to piece together the sequence of events to a satisfactory degree:
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 08
    My friend was supposed to be coming to my birthday party straight from work. When she left her office, she realised she had forgotten the gift she had planned for me (a book) at home. Since she was already running late and her place is pretty far from both her
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 09
    work and my flat, she chose to text her boyfriend, who was having dinner at his parent's home at the time. She knew he was there, and knew his parents live close to me, so she asked him to just buy a copy of the same book at a bookshop on his way to my place so they'd have a gift.
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 10
    For reasons known only to him, he did not choose this simple, reasonable solution to the 'we forgot our gift' issue. Instead of leaving five minutes early to pick up another copy of the book, he instead chose to just GRAB A RANDOM ITEM OFF HIS MOTHER'S LIVING ROOM SHELF. WITHOUT ASKING HER. He had no idea what it
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 11
    was, just thought it looked pretty, took it, and stuffed it in a paper bag. He also did not text back my friend or react to her calls, so she (reasonably) assumed he hadn't read her message and ended up going BACK to get the book, which was why they arrived separately and with separate gifts.
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 12
    Meanwhile, the boyfriend had unknowingly gifted me not just any antique, no! This item had been passed down to his mother from her THREE- TIMES-GREAT-GRANDMOTHER. It had been in his family's possession for literal centuries, and was the ONLY tangible connection she (his mother)
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 13
    still had to her homecountry, which, incidentally, is also my mother's. homecountry - which he wasn't aware of, meaning that what I thought was a thoughtful connection to my trip there was a total coincidence! He had no idea of the item's cultural significance.
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 14
    My friend immediately made him call his mum to fess up to the entire situation. His mother had been running herself ragged trying to figure out where this item disappeared to for DAYS. Obviously, she never suspected thievery, and was blaming herself
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 15
    terribly for having lost something this important. The boyfriend ACTUALLY HAD THE GALL to try to convince her not to make her call his mum! He wanted to sweep the entire thing under the rug! Of course, we didn't let that happen.
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 16
    His mother came by my place this morning and I returned the item to her, along with some apologies for not starting investigations immediately and some nice chocolate. We had a lovely conversation about our shared cultural heritage, I assured her that the item
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 17
    had been treated with dignity for the entire time it was in my possession, and we parted ways with a hug. She also told me that my initial estimate of the item's value was incorrect- it's actually worth EVEN MORE money. It would probably sell for a four-figure sum at auction.
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 18
    I don't know what she wants to do with her son, but I hope she vi My friend, for obvious reasons, broke up with him.
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 19
    Lessons learned: Google suspicious gifts, and lock away your sentimentals/valuables when people you're not entirely sure about come over. The GALL of this man.
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 20
    Tl;dr: The suspiciously expensive gift was, in fact, stolen. The boyfriend swiped it off his mum's shelf, not knowing what it was or how much it was worth. I returned it to her and hope she
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 21
    crazycatlorde 2 days ago Firstly, good on you! Secondly, good on your friend for breaking up with this dope. Thirdly, I laugh at the implication that one should lock valuables away from people you're not entirely sure about if that person is your own child
    via u/crazycatlorde
  • 22
    Beneficial_Hall_5320 OP. 2 days ago True! That poor woman obviously wouldn't have thought her own son would be running around grabbing random things off her shelves!
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 23
    I still ended up checking all of my stuff, considering he appears to have sticky fingers and spent hours in my flat basically unsupervised on my birthday. I'll grow much more cautious with my valuables when having groups over from now on, especially if the group includes friends' partners who I might not know that well!
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320
  • 24
    bee102019 2 days ago Yikes. What a . I'm glad she broke up with him!
    via u/bee102019
  • 25
    Beneficial_Hall_5320 OP 2 days ago Me, too! We all thought he was a bit off, and the relationship already had its issues, but none of us thought he'd be the type to pull that kind of nonsense. He's still being a bit shady as to why he didn't just buy another copy of the book - theories include him not wanting to spend money, him literally not having the money to spend, and sheer laziness.
    via u/Beneficial_Hall_5320

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relationship advice drama birthday relationship-drama gift reddit story relationships advice cheating couples love Reddit funny dating
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