'I had to keep a straight face': Employee gets back at petty coworker who keeps stealing their pens

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 24, 2025 5:00 PM EDT

When your coworkers keep stealing all your good pens, you start to wonder what can be done to stop them. It's kind of a small problem — maybe too insignificant to involve HR or your boss. Plus, you may not even be able to figure out which coworker keeps stealing your pens. Maybe you have a coworker who keeps stealing all your "good" paperclips, or continually borrows your stapler until it basically lives on their desk.

These things seem small, right? But in a workplace, you're in this microcosm of the world where it's just you and your coworkers with little outside influence. All of these small actions, when done 40 hours per week, can quickly brew resentment. When your coworkers take all the good gel pens, leaving you with the inferior ballpoint pens, it's going to annoy you. But what are you going to do? Sit down and write a strongly worded Slack message or something? Send one of those passive-aggressive group messages that's like, "Just as a general note, let's not do X and Y," when really everyone knows that the message is just directed at one person? No, no. You should get creative, which is exactly what this person below did in their beautiful tale of petty revenge on the pen thief coworker. 

Next, read about what happened when a 27-year-old man got called out by a 34-year-old woman for his interesting style of texting: "Is he using ChatGPT to talk to me?" 

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  • 01

    "My coworker kept stealing my pens, so I swapped them out"

    I used to leave a few pens on my desk, but they always seemed to vanish. At first, I thought maybe I was just being careless, but then I noticed one of my coworkers always had the exact same pens I bought. Instead of calling him out, I decided to make things a
    via u/MiddleNebula8320
  • 02
    little interesting. I bought a pack of disappearing ink pens and left them in the usual spot. Sure enough, he "borrowed" one right before a meeting and started taking notes. About halfway through, his notes began fading until the page looked blank. He
    via u/MiddleNebula8320
  • 03
    stared at it in total confusion while everyone else kept writing. I had to keep a straight face, but inside I was d__ng of laughter. Needless to say, he never touched my pens again after that little incident, and my desk supplies have been safe ever since.
    via u/MiddleNebula8320
  • 04
    Fluffy-Mastodon Your pens were vanishing. His notes vanished. Seems like a fair trade.
    via u/Fluffy-Mastodon
  • 05
    L... Co-worker: My notes are vanishing. You: That's nothing, whole pens vanished from my desk.
    via u/Lem1618
  • 06
    DearElise God this made my day. Nice brain you have there
    via u/DearElise
  • 07
    Authorized Vehicle I worked in a school and always left a can of dried out pens on my desk in case anybody ever needed one.
    via u/Authorized Vehicle
  • 08
    prodigalnun A fine penishment, indeed
    via u/pr0digalnun
  • 09
    Man in blue button-down shirt holds glasses and writes in notebook with pen, next to jar of pencils, in office setting
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 10
    G... But why do you buy pens for work? Edit: wow, seems like people really buy pens for work. OTOH, this encourages companies to buy cheap crop items so they can technically claim they provide everything needed because they know people will bring in and use their own equipment.
    via u/GuestStarr
  • 11
    AnnieJack I noticed at work my pens kept disappearing. And then I cleaned out my purse and found no less than 13 pens.
    via u/AnnieJack
  • 12
    Tigrisrock Exactly the reason I'd never bring something I bought for myself to the office. That's what the office supplies are there for. They can take those pens all day long, I'll just take a break, stroll to the supply area and grab a new one.
    via u/Tigrisrock
  • 13
    Potential-Buy3325 I had a salesman like that, but for him it was pencils. It got to the point that when he came into the office | would lock them up in my desk drawer. I started saving my pencils that were down to the nub, and at his retirement party presented him with a box full of pencil nubs.
    via u/Potential-Buy3325
  • 14
    Pomegranate_1328 On our desk at work we have attached some flowers to the top of pens. People tend to skip stealing a pen with a big flower attached. You get busted real quick. I have been known to keep my pens in my desk drawer for this very reason. The ones I loved to write with just walked away. It was super annoying.
    via u/Pomegranate_1328
  • 15
    Ancient-Compos... I worked for an engineering company, and I frequently would leave pens behind. And I'd forget where they were. Solved that by using fuchsia and indigo ink. They generally stayed put when I left them. Engineers are stereotypical males usually and wouldn't be caught de d with those color pens.
    via u/Ancient-Composer7789
  • 16
    Man sits at desk with his feet on desk, writing in notebook, with coffee cup, laptop, and jar of writing utensils in front of him, with brick wall and office decor in background
    via Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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