Work colleague helps himself to coworker's daily homemade lunch, finally gets called out on his gluttony by another coworker and loses it: ‘[He] got extremely red’

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Mar 1, 2025 9:00 AM EST

The workplace at lunchtime is very similar to lunchtime in our elementary school days. Sure, you can settle for a vending machine snack and a picking off of someone else's plate, but it's not preferred. Having a homemade lunch with all the fixings is what you really want! Lunchtime in the office breaks up the day, provides you with a much-needed refuel, and allows you to mingle with your favorite coworkers. However, if a food thief walks among you in the office, you might be in for a rather dramatic time once noon comes around every day.

 In this next story, an employee calls out their coworker for repeatedly eating large portions of their colleague's lunch. This colleague has a bento box made for him by his generous wife, who had no idea this food thievery was happening. The colleague, despite trying to get this coworker to stop, fails to do so and stops having lunch with the group. Well, the employee who posted this story was not going to let this situation slide without saying something…

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  • There's a difference between responding to a bid for sharing and helping oneself to something they have no business helping themselves to. In the workplace, eating someone else's food is a pretty bold move because it can be classified as workplace torment, which is a big no-no. Instead of getting the hint, this food-stealing coworker continues to eat more and more of his colleague's food until the colleague stops bringing food in. The employee who posted the story contacted their coworker's wife, who makes the lunch every morning, and she wasn't happy, to say the least.

  • 666 ‘John, you know why he stopped coming to lunch, it's because you're always taking his food.""
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • "AITA for calling my coworker out for his obsession with another coworker’s lunch"

    We are all in our early to mid-30s, and this has been frustrating me for a while. All names are fake. My coworker Dan's wife Ann (who is a friend of mine) packs him lunch every day. Ann is a great cook, and Dan brings these bento boxes that look immaculate. They look straight out of one of those food anime.
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  • My other coworker, John, has always complimented how amazing Dan's lunch looks compared to whatever he's got, but then it turned into him also casually taking something from Dan's bento box. I think he used
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  • to ask for permission before, but now he just sits around while we're eating and goes, "Oh, that looks good," and just grabs it. I didn't think much of it because Dan didn't say anything, but I did
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  • notice John kept grabbing the biggest fritter/sausage a few times and thought that was kind of ride. But not my business, so I kept my mouth shut.
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  • I randomly brought this up while talking to Ann, and she was clearly annoyed by this. I think she communicated that with Dan because he started becoming more protective of his lunch. He
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  • would loudly say how starved he was before opening his bento, jokingly looking over his shoulders and stuff. This, however, did not stop John, and honestly, it's been painful.
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  • Watching Dan get more and more frustrated, I started making comments like, "That's almost half of his lunch, John," and John would mumble something like, "But they're all stuck together,"
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  • and proceed to take three dumplings. Dan tells the table that he doesn't have enough to share, and five minutes later, John "forgets" and just casually takes his food. Dan tells him
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  • specifically that he needs to eat his own lunch, and John will say that he just wanted a nibble (it's not) and act like Dan is making a big deal out of nothing.
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  • I knew Dan was stressed about this, but I didn't know how bad it was until Ann told me about Dan telling her to stop packing him lunch, combined with Dan not eating lunch with us in the
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  • common area. I spoke to Dan about it, and he was sick. of. John's. sh. Apparently, now that he is not bringing lunch/skipping lunch altogether, John asks him
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  • about his plans for lunch every single day and gets visibly disappointed when he learns there is no bento. This went on for about a week.
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  • ROEPENDENT AUDITORS REPORT ပလ FRANCIN AND OPEN HOUS ,,,,,,
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Last week at lunch, John said something about how he really misses having Dan around at lunch, and something in me kind of snapped. I don't remember exactly what I said, but it was
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  • something like, "John, you know why he stopped coming to lunch, it's because you're always taking his food." There were two other people in the room with us and they kind of chuckled.
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  • Well, John got extremely red and started raising his voice at me, so I was like, "Guess we're not having lunch together either," and left. Now things are a bit tense in the office. Ann thanked me for
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  • speaking up, but I can tell this is affecting Dan from what Ann told me, and I'm starting to regret saying something and causing tension at work, thinking that maybe I shouldn't have gotten involved.
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  • additional info: Dan and John are both Koreans and John is older than us. I know there is this whole thing around age and respect within the culture and I wonder if that has something to do with
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  • their dynamic (which is why I feel like I may have overstepped). I met Ann long before starting my current job. Dan and I are friendly, but we don't interact much outside of work.
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  • Traditional-Pay-... You said what needed to be said, the only one offended by your comment was the offender. Your NTA for speaking the truth.
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  • Functi... John is cheap And Dan obviously hadn't imagined that he should have set boundaries to protect his lunch, but at this point, he had every right to humiliate John Someone should have said something sooner and that someone should probably be Dan but NTA
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  • Gennevieve1 NTA. Let him stew, at least someone has finally called him out. But TBH I don't know how Dan didn't nip this in the bud when it all started. I would have slapped his hand the second time he tried to take something from my plate.
    via Gennevieve1
  • knight_shade_realms NTA John is a mooch who enjoyed stealing Dan's lunch Even when Dan told him no, he continued to "forget" and then threw a tantrum when called out I would mention it to HR though just in case he tries to throw you and Dan under the bus
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terrible coworkers lunch break aita antiwork workplace-stories jobs work stories AITAH job work coworkers askreddit reddit story lunch entitled people karma workplace reddit thread Reddit entitled people in the workplace
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