The subreddit Am I the A**hole is rife with great moral and ethical conflicts…and then there are cases like these, which are just mostly funny even if people still like to argue about the correct thing to do.
In this case, the original poster (OP) is missing three fingers on one hand and, tired of people asking about it and having to tell the story, started to make up different funny ways it happened.
Which was all fun and games, I guess, until people started to realize they were being lied to and, for some reason, felt they were entitled to the truth.
Aita for giving all of my coworkers a different reason for why I have missing fingers?
I have three fingers missing on my dominant hand. It’s fine. I can type and everything and even manage to tie my shoelaces most days (and on the days I can’t, that’s the dyspraxia). However, I won’t deny that it looks a bit odd to most people. I only have my fourth and fifth fingers so my hand looks a bit like a child’s drawing of a rabbit, and not a good one.
I’m used to people asking about it, usually after staring for a good minute or two, but I still find it annoying. I really don’t get why you’d think it would be an OK thing to ask someone about, but hey. I wasn’t raised in a barn. Usually I nip the questioning in the bud by just explaining the truth from the get go and assuming that enough people will gossip about it that the message will spread by the end of the day (it always, always does).
Anyway, I started a new job about a month ago, and I honestly could not face going through that same cycle again. I felt like the time had come to not play into it any more and to make something out of it – and I decided to make myself laugh. When the first new coworker asked about it, I completely lied and told her that I chewed them off as a baby. I then decided to tell the next person who asked that I cut them off with a plastic knife at a picnic, and the next person that I was born with six fingers and they removed too many, and so on. All genuinely ridiculous reasons but I’m a good actor and they actually believed my stupid lies. I didn’t expect them to (a plastic knife… through bone?!) but there you go. Maybe they just thought there’s no way I’d lie about how I lost my fingers.
Within about 3 days, I learned that my coworkers had been arguing about the actual reason and it seems like a lot of them now actively dislike me for lying to them. I’m probably going to have to make some cupcakes over the weekend with my super cool 3D printed adaptive whisk to get back into their good books.
Anyway, I told this story to my brother today and he told me that I was an asshole because I caused tension within the office on my first day and made people feel stupid for being gullible and believing my lies. My argument is that I’m not the asshole because they were asking a rude, albeit common, question and because I didn’t do it with the intention of deceiving them, I was just honestly fed up of the question and didn’t think they’d think I actually severed three fingers with dental floss when I was 3. I’ll accept my judgement, though.
The majority of people who weighed in fell on the NAH (No A**holes Here) side of things.
Maybe he should have waited a bit…
And yeah, that was a hilarious story…
And why can’t people just laugh at this stuff?
I guess I agree, but honestly, it’s really kind of rude for others to ask personal questions about a person’s appearance, is it not?
A few people agreed with me, but only a few.
Because why are they asking personal questions in the first place? It’s work!
What do you think? Was it all good fun, or should someone have been the a**hole?
Let us know in the comments!