'That’s mine, maybe you missed the label?': 31-year-old coworker ‘Tina’ drinks teabags soaked in fish sauce after repeatedly robbing their colleague's tea stash

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Oct 11, 2025 10:00 AM EDT

She was technically warned, but this coworker couldn't resist another sip of her colleague's expensive tea. Except this time, it wasn't the oolong infusion hitting her lips; it was the disgusting flavor of teabags soaked in fish sauce. Whenever an employee messes with someone else's food in the break room, there's bound to be a strongly worded email sent to HR. But who was in the wrong here? 

Pranks can sometimes go too far if they start to get personal. However, as a tea lover and aficionado of all things steeped, I find tea thievery to be the biggest insult of them all, worthy of whatever punishment befalls the robber. Making tea is a peaceful and pleasant activity, often wafting nice aromas around the office and giving employees a spare 10 minutes of rest from their emails. So when this woman found that her coworker, Tina, was repeatedly rifling through her expensive tea stash, something had to be done to teach her a lesson. 

And it certainly didn't smell like the jasmine green tea infusion she was expecting; it smelled like a fish market instead.

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  • Cheezburger Image 10562774528
    via Arman Zhenikeyev

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • AITA for exposing my coworker as the one stealing my tea?
    via WorkingWord1356
  • I (28F) work at an office with a shared kitchen. I bring a particular specialty tea blend that's expensive, and I label the box clearly: "My Name's Tea, Please Don't Take."
    via WorkingWord1356
  • Over time, packets disappeared. I eventually rigged a decoy batch by soaking wrappers in fish sauce (yes, petty) and left them in the box. One
    via WorkingWord1356
  • day, Tina (31F) was caught in the kitchen gasping at how awful the tea tasted. I quietly said, "That's mine, maybe you missed the label?"
    via WorkingWord1356
  • She went pale and started yelling I was "setting her up." HR is now involved, and some coworkers say I "crossed a boundary" by doing a prank. Others say she shouldn't have stolen it.
    via WorkingWord1356
  • I didn't put anything harmful, I just made it gross. So, AITA?
    via WorkingWord1356
  • Hot_Competition_5... NTA. She stole from a labeled box and then acted shocked. If you want to stoop to petty, so be it but honesty would've sufficed. Theft warrants consequences, not sympathy.
    via Hot_Competition_5
  • Chilling_Storm · NTA Tina is a giant thieving a h le though. Re HR: Keep repeating that Tina STOLE from you that the box was clearly labeled and maybe you like fish sauce in your tea. That none of this would
    via Chilling_Storm
  • happen if Tina hadn't taken what was clearly marked as belonging to someone else and WHAT ELSE IS TINA STEALING??? Can Tina be trusted not to take home the printer or other office supplies?
    via Chilling_Storm
  • But you knew that your teabags were being stolen, why didn't you just keep them at your desk and take one with you to prepare.
    via Chilling_Storm
  • GhostLeopard_666. I always keep my tea in a draw or my bag. Seems abit extreme to get HR involved. Fish sauce is creative, and you probably look like the office nutcase now and if your comfy with that then who cares?
    via GhostLeopard_666
  • Cinnamarkcarsn⚫ Its best to keep your special items in your desk not the kitchen rather than confront a coworker. It was clever but not nice
    via Cinnamarkcarsn
  • GrimSpirit42 NTA. Nor can you be considered the AH just because you felt like storing some fish sauce in your tea box. /s
    via GrimSpirit42
  • I used to work in a textile company's chemical lab. We had one guy that would steal our lunches frequently. Everyone knew who did it, but management would not do anything.
    via GrimSpirit42
  • So, I mentioned it was a chemical lab??? Somehow a bit of Phenolphthalein found its way into one of my lunches.
    via GrimSpirit42
  • That afternoon it was VERY obvious who had eaten my lunch. (On a side note: while Phenolphthalein is a pH indicator in the lab...at the time it was also the active ingredient in laxatives.)
    via GrimSpirit42

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