Cat sitter ruins friend's $500 teapot while they were away, refuses to pay them back: 'It smells like soap. It also has multiple scratches on the inside'

If you ruined a friend's expensive item, would you offer to replace it?

It's nice to be able to rely on friends for housesitting. If you have pets or plants, you know how expensive it can be to hire somebody to take care of them while you're away. If you can favor swap with friends and do it for each other, then you're both saving each other a lot of time and money. Plus, you can generally trust each other with your space and not have to lock up your valuables. But just because you're friends with somebody, doesn't mean it's easy to navigate a housesitting relationship. They might not know what things are precious to you, and may mess up in the process. This can usually be solved by good and open communication and a willingness to forgive.

You have to let your friends mess up sometimes because you know you mess up. If you aren't able to work through this and forgive each other, then you probably weren't friends in the first place. But this takes two sides of openness and willingness to communicate. If one person is closed off and tries to get defensive in the way of a mistake, then it reveals a lot about their personality. That's what happened in the story, where a valuable teapot was ruined, and nobody wanted to take accountability for it.

via Kien Lee

_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}
On the one hand, they didn't know how to take care of the teapot, and how much it cost, but on the other hand, they should've been more willing to correct their mistake. It's always tricky to get involved with friends and money. It makes things awkward almost immediately. But these things are bound to come up every now and again, and it's a test of your friendship to see how you handle them. Friendships have been lost over something way less valuable. But the person in the story wasn't sure if they should just cut their losses, or if they should stick to their guns and try to see this mistake through. Read on to see what the story was, and what commenters had to say about it.
My friend ruined my yixing teapot and I want her to replace it or give me 500 dollars.

via u/TeapotthrwoCity4661
via u/TeapotthrwoCity4661
via u/TeapotthrwoCity4661
via u/TeapotthrwoCity4661
via u/TeapotthrwoCity4661
Commenters weighed in on the situation.

via u/pinetree8000
via Ben White

_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}
via u/Filosifee
via u/Filosifee
via u/Filosifee
via u/Throwway_queer
via u/MaximusZacharia
via u/calamityjimothy
via u/dasgrendel80
via u/dasgrendel80
via u/Any_Act_9433
via u/rez2metrogirl
via u/edwadokun
via u/No-Dress4626
via u/No-Dress4626
via u/Category6818
via u/Djolumn