Mistakes happen.
People make mistakes several times an hour, let alone a day.
The key to fixing a mistake is to first own up to it.
Then find a way to rectify it.
But some people find that process hard to do.
Case in point…
Redditor Puzzled_Tie6848 wanted to discuss his experience and get some feedback. So naturally, he came to visit the “Am I The A**hole” (AITA) subReddit.
He asked:
“AITA for not returning my friend’s wallet?”
The Original Poster (OP) explained:
“So this guy that I hang out with has almost the exact same wallet as I do.”
“Size, color, stitching, just the texture of our wallets is slightly different.”
“So anyways, we were hanging with some friends and decided to call it a night.”
“While I was grabbing my stuff to leave, I grabbed his wallet by mistake.”
“I’d already thrown my own wallet in my gym bag I kept with a change of clothes because I go over straight after work.”
“I got all the way home without realizing.”
“I live 20 minutes away, and it was raining at 11 o clock at night.”
“So I get a phone call maybe 5 minutes after I get home.”
“‘Hey man, do you have my wallet?'”
“Check my pocket, and sure enough, it’s there.”
“Tell him I ‘m sorry I have it.”
“‘Well, I need you to drive it back to me.'”
“He doesn’t know this, but I have to be at work at 8 in the morning and leave at 12 the next morning, but I didn’t say this.”
“I just ask him if I can bring it to him early tomorrow.”
“I know I messed up.”
“‘No bud, you messed up. I work early in the morning, and I want to go out, so I need my wallet.'”
“‘You’ve gotta bring it to me you messed up.'”
“‘You’ve gotta make it right.'”
“Dude, it’s raining and late, and he said, “‘I don’t care, man. That’s my property.'”
“Well, of course, but we’re friends, and you should be able to trust me.”
“‘That’s not the issue. That’s my property, and you can’t keep it. If you don’t bring me my wallet, you’re no longer allowed at my house.'”
“Oh? Well, I guess I’m no longer allowed at your house, and you can come to get your wallet tonight if you really want to go out so badly this late.”
“Otherwise, you can wait til the morning before I go to work.”
“And he decided to come get it.”
“I ended up giving him 20 bucks as well since he drove out.”
“And I guess we aren’t friends anymore.”
“Am I the a**hole?”
Redditors shared their thoughts on this matter and weighed some options to the question AITA:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Many Redditors declared OP WAS the A**hole.
“YTA, it was your mistake because you took your friend’s wallet and didn’t make right by it.”
“How hard is this?”
“Wouldn’t want to be ‘friends’ with you either.”
“P.S. You even admit that you had already thrown your own wallet in the bag. Were you too stoned to realize that when you took his?” ~ GrubbyTopDashCarter
“You’d be in trouble without your driver’s license if your work involves driving.”
“Your credit cards are in your wallet.”
“Your work ID might be in the wallet.”
“Your spending cash is in your wallet.”
“Your ATM is in your wallet.”
“OP took it and refused to return it ASAP because ‘it’s inconvenient’ for him.”
“And forced his “friend” to drive to him to get his property back.”
“YTA OP. A damned selfish one too.”
“Personally, I’d make sure everyone else in the friend’s group knew just how huge of an a** you are.”
You know, in case you ‘take’ their property too and then force them to go get it from you because it’s ‘inconvenient’ for you to return it at the time.” ~ NeedleworkerMuch3061
“On the driver’s license in the wallet point – 100%!”
“Loads of folks do this so we don’t forget our license, and don’t want to risk losing it in the event of a car break-in… Or maybe drive a different vehicle for work.”
“So quite possibly, your ex-friend had to drive without his license because it was mildly inconvenient to you to return the property you STOLE from him?”
“You were home five freaking minutes when he texted, so you weren’t already asleep, probably not even in bed yet.”
“You made the mistake. The onus is squarely on you to fix it.”
“Along with a string of sincere apologies!”
“Instead, you decided to tell him essentially, ‘Tough luck, your problem now.'”
“YTA dude. Big a**hole. Huge!” ~ Odd-Phrase5808
“YTA – how is this even a question?”
“You messed up, took someone’s money, credit cards, and identification, then asked him to ‘deal with it’ because it’s raining and you need to sleep?”
“Yeah, you are a big A-hole.” ~ SkynetMCP
“Definitely… YTA.”
“He’s selfish and just thinks about how he felt at the moment even though he took the wallet.”
“The friend needed it back.”
“It sounds like this person has no regard for others and only cares about how he feels at the moment.” ~ JackfruitCurry
“YTA. You shouldn’t have made him leave.”
“You both had work early and owed it to him.”
“I also assume his license was in there, and assuming he drove to you, he shouldn’t have been driving without it.”
“Of course, you’re the AH.” ~ idontgiveaf**k0
“Not even that. What if that night was the friend’s ONE night to let loose and have fun?”
“OP screwed up and is reaching for any excuse to prove he’s not the a**hole.”
“SADLY though OP YTA.”
“You do not get to dictate how your friend wants to spend his night out.”
“Also, all this talk about not being his friend anymore doesn’t even seem like you care that you possibly lost a friend.”
“You do not seem at all upset over the fact you possibly lost a friendship over something that could have been easily fixed.”
“Now, say what happened if your friend got into an accident on the way to get his stuff and he got seriously hurt.”
“It would take the police/paramedics much longer to be able to ID him without HIS wallet and make outcalls to his emergency contacts.”
“Wait, who am I kidding? You wouldn’t even feel bothered by that at all, seeing as you don’t even care about his friendship.”
“OP YTA, and please be a BETTER FRIEND.” ~ GhostEchoSix
“YTA. I wouldn’t be surprised if he told people you stole it because you weren’t willing to return it immediately.”
“If you make a mistake like this, you need to fix it immediately and not the next morning because of rain.”
“You have no idea if your former friend needed his wallet or not that night.” ~ Necessary-Day-3862
OP came back with edits…
“Someone said to edit the post and talk about the visual impairment of the rain.”
“It was hard to see at points in time.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“It’s Florida in April, and if you live in Florida, you know chaotic the weather can be here.”
“Sunny one spot, pouring the next, a drizzle here, and more pouring.”
“So like that, except dark, I guess.”
OP also had a change of heart after reading what commenters had to say… kind of.
“I guess I’m the a**hole.”
“Already apologized profusely.”
“But I’m not gonna be friends with the guy again.”
“A couple of you guys said that if we talked to each other that way, then we were barely friends or on our way out.”
“And after some evaluation, maybe I did use this as an out subconsciously.”
“But I’m not gonna let anyone talk to me like I’m their do boy, their dog, their lesser.”
“And I’m not the only one he talks to in our friend group disrespectfully when he’s upset about something.”
“He does it to the ones he thinks he can because he’s bigger/smarter, in my opinion.”
“Just no one ever speaks up for themselves.”
“And there are other things besides that he’s done, up to the point of being physical (towards someone in same friend group).”
“Which, for some reason, everyone just sweeps under the rug and forgets.”
“And it’s been eating at me for a while, I guess.”
“So I apologize for the rantings when I was super upset.”
“I accept the judgment (albeit a little ungracefully).”
“But I’m not gonna be friends with someone anymore who thinks they can treat their friends like dirt because they can, and no one will say or do anything about it.”
Turns out this incident was a breaking point in the friend group.
“Just wanted to let everyone know that me and the guy still have not spoken since that night.”
“Everyone we hung out with also stopped getting together every week at his place to hang out because of what happened.”
“Found out one of our buddies was actually with him while he called me.”
“Told me I should have brought the wallet back or met halfway.”
“But he also doesn’t blame me for not wanting to be friends after the way he talked to me because it didn’t need to escalate to the point that it did so quickly on his end.”
“So not only am I the a**hole who accidentally stole his friend’s wallet, but am now also the a**hole for breaking up our friend group.”
“Sorry, guys.”
Well, OP, that is quite the story.
Sorry you lost a “friend” and that your whole group has imploded over a seemingly minor incident.
Glad you saw the error of your ways, begrudgingly.