15 People Who Seem to Have Grasped the Meaning of Life

In order to achieve your goal or to teach an arrogant person a lesson, it's not always necessary to make a scandal and stand your ground. Sometimes tricks or even deceit can be much more effective.

• I'm standing in line at a fast food restaurant. A man in his forties orders 3 ice creams. They come in plastic cups. The man is indignant, saying, "I have children sitting there! If they don't get waffle cones, they'll be very angry!" So, he got his cones and left.
  A few minutes later, I passed his table and broke out into laughter because this man was sitting together with 2 other men of his age, and all of them were licking the ice cream. © Success & Failure / VK

• I was 1 week away from giving birth, and I was working full-time. I had lower back pain and headaches. I asked my boss to let me work from home. And she said, "I understand you, but it's in the company's best interest that you stay here."
  So I went to HR and took a maternity leave. As a result, the office is in a state of collapse: despite the instructions I left, no one can cope with my work. The boss has to do everything herself. © PetitePeachPep / Reddit
• I came to visit my brother, and he introduced me to his fiancée, "This is Helen, she's 28, and she's a dog handler." Okay. I stayed with him for 4 days and watched her bossing my brother around, "Lenny, you promised to take out the trash," "Lenny, today it's your turn to cook," "Lenny, we need to clean the floors."
  He happily did everything, and she gave him a hug, a kiss, or a treat. Or complimented him on how wonderful and good he is. And I looked at her and thought, "It doesn't matter if she's a dog handler or just a wise woman, but I would definitely learn from her." © Mamdarinka / VK

• My dad, when I was a little girl, invented a game called "flies and spiders." He would wrap me and my friends in laces like in a spider's web, and leave us to do his own stuff. At the same time, we tried to get out of the "trap." As soon as we got out, we'd run to him. And he'd "catch" us again.
  A week later, all the children in the neighborhood were playing this game with us. Only later did I realize and appreciate my father's ingenious idea. © Success & Failure / VK
• I've been doing floor installation for about 10 years. I received an order to put tiles with a pattern in the office of a large company. Just as I started to work, "the big boss," the owner of the company, came in, and said that I did everything wrong.
  I looked at the laid tile in surprise, saying, "What's wrong?" And he was like, "Those numbers on the back of the tile are the sequence order, you need to follow the numbers." I tried to convince him otherwise, but he called my boss and the man called me. And he told me to do it the way the customer wanted it to be done. Okay, the customer is always right.
  A few days went by. The big boss called our office and asked us to redo the job. I ended up getting paid to remove the tiles and re-lay them - just as I had intended to do it from the start. © TheGrandmasterGrizz / Reddit
• My university had just invested in a big new dining hall, and to help pay for their investment, required all new students to buy a 150 meal plan both semesters. This took a huge hit on my family's budget. Since I lived off campus, I knew I wouldn't be able to use them all. Heading into November, I realized I would end up with 60–75 meals leftover.
  So I had an idea: I went to the local salvation army and invited the poor and homeless to eat at my expense. On the appointed day, the crowd of 30 people entered the dining hall. The manager tried to kick us out. And I was like, "I paid for these meals. What's wrong?" She was stunned.
  To this day, it's still one of the proudest moments of my life. Me and my friends and family still have a drink and chuckle over the story and the snoody, angry reactions I got. © RotomRoomba / Reddit

• I own a managed service provider (MSP) firm which provides cloud computing services to clients. Business is good enough to pay my employees a respectable wage, while offering them a good work-life balance. I haven't had to lay off a single employee yet. So I hired a middle manager. Let's call him Harry.
  Harry seems to have gone off the rails about AI. He suggested that I fire one of my employees because AI could do his job. Frankly, this rubbed me the wrong way. Anyway, I approached Harry and told him that I took his suggestions to heart and decided to automate his job with AI. © CompetitionExtreme36 / Reddit
• When I started working on my current job, my department consisted of 3 people: me, Helen and my boss. Helen was very slow, she would finish her daily tasks only at the end of the working day. While I quickly got into the process, and was able to fulfil my day's plan by lunchtime.
  As a result, I started to take more work and did 50% more tasks than Helen. My boss was very happy with me and said that I was a fast worker, while Helen was not really smart. After 2 months of hard work, I suddenly realized who of us was not really smart. © Work Stories / VK

• I have worked for the company for 25 years. Our repair crew was the most productive until a new manager, Mr. Brown, was hired. And here is the situation: my shift started at 7:30 a.m. on Friday and ended at 3:15 a.m. on Saturday. That's what I indicated in my report.
  At the meeting, Mr. Brown said that, according to the tracker in my car, I left the customer at 3:12 a.m. not 3:15. As you can imagine I was absolutely fuming at this level of nonsense, I told him that at the time I was covered in mud and sweat and just wanted to get home after completing a monster shift for the company and was he genuinely making a storm over 3 minutes. He said he was making me aware that I could be fired for it.
  I said that if we're going to be this petty you can take me off the emergency contact list for extra coverage and I won't be starting 20 minutes early each day either, I'll now be clocking in at exactly 7.30 a.m. and I shall be heading out at exactly 5.30 p.m.
  In the end, the whole crew followed my example. The customers flooded the office with complaints, and the situation reached the owner. Mr. Brown was fired. © irritatingfarquar / Reddit
• I don't like cooking, it's not my thing. But my mother-in-law and sister-in-law love to cook. Neither of their husbands lift a finger to help, and they like it that way. Before marriage, I was treated as a guest. But since my marriage 6 months ago, they expect, want and demand I cook with them.
  The first few times I went along with it, but I hated it. It took 5–7 hours to make food and do dishes. So when they planned a get-together last weekend and discussed the menu, I suggested ordering in. This way, everyone can be more relaxed.
  They looked like I insulted them. I told them they can cook but to give me a list of what I should make, I will buy it. They said that's not how traditions work and if I hate it so much, I can relax with men. That's exactly what I did. Much to their anger. I helped setting place and serving, but that was it.
  As we were eating, my husband commented how good something tasted. Mother-in-law immediately went on about how I wouldn't be cooking anything for him. When he said he can cook for himself, the sister-in-law chimed in with how her husband or dad never had to cook a day in their life. How marrying lazy women like me has ruined his manhood.
  I looked at my husband and we both left. Mother-in-law and sister-in-law are blasting our phones over my arrogance and calling him spineless. © hatethistradition / Reddit

• I used to work permanent nights. Sometimes one of the managers wanted to leave early, and we would cover for him. We were not even thanked for that. And then our whole department got an angry email, saying we were not allowed to use the managers' computers.
  I was furious: we were doing it to cover for the dude, and he complained about us! Okay. When we were asked to cover for the manager again, we said we weren't allowed to use their computers. © Fire_The_Torpedo2011 / Reddit
• I'm a gamer, I spend a lot of time on my computer. Basically, my daily life is work > grocery shopping > home gaming. Every single day. And I'm fine with that.
  But I have strict old-school parents. They came to live with me and then started nagging me, "Why don't you go anywhere? Go out, meet someone! Go socialize." I got so fed up with them that after work I started hanging out in internet cafes. I only came home to sleep.
  I also cut off the Internet at home. My parents were like, "Why is there no Internet?" And I was like, "Why do I need Internet? I'm hanging out with my mates." After 2 weeks, my parents couldn't stand it anymore and moved out. © sdvb / Reddit
• The kids and I went to an amusement park. I took 2 kinds of candy to avoid motion sickness: ginger-lemon and ginger-mango. For those who’ve never had ginger candy, it is spicy. The mango ginger are sweet and spicy, but they also stick to your teeth like crazy.
  Bored with waiting in line, my kids asked for candy. The boy in front, about 7 years old, started begging, "Mom, give me some candy." She said she didn't have any. The boy said, "But she does." I told him, "I don’t really think you’d like my candy."
  By this time, his mom has focused in on the interaction. Eventually, his mom just huffed and said, “You’ve got a whole baggie. Can’t you give him just one? Common, don’t be greedy.” I said, “Alright,” and dug out a lemon one. (I’m not completely heartless.)
  That’s when the kid whined that he wanted mango, mango is his favorite. I told him lemon was better, but he insisted on mango. I told him, "It’s kinda sticky," as I handed it over. The kid ripped open the wrapper, and popped the candy into his mouth.
  Then a look of horror appeared on his face. He screamed. The mom told him to spit it out, but he couldn't. She gave me a hateful look and ran with her son to the water fountain to wash his mouth.
  We got to move up in line 2 spaces, though. I’d like to think the kid will think twice about demanding things from strangers. Plus, it was entertaining. Overall, the kids and I counted it as a win. © LadybugGal95 / Reddit

• I built a fence on the border with my neighbor's plot at my own expense. My neighbor and I shook hands and that was it. But a year later, he sold the house, and a woman moved in.
  Her name was Anne, she was a realtor. And she had a dog. The dog was aggressive and naughty, liked to chew on furniture. So, when Anna went to work, she left the dog running around in the yard.
  And then suddenly this woman comes to me with a pile of papers and a lawyer and says, "Your fence is 9 inches into my property. Move it, or I'm gonna sue you!" I had to remove the fence. Then she came again and asked me when I was going to build a new one.
  It turned out that without my fence, Anne had to keep her dog inside because she was scared it would run away. So, the dog ruined her furniture. And I replied, “Well, Anne, I’m not going to be rebuilding the fence. I don’t want any legal trouble, and the best way to stay out of trouble is to not build near your property.” The look on her face was priceless! © Kid_Endmore / Reddit

• I've been a flight attendant for 10 years. I usually try to help people, but I can't stand when people are dishonest. There is a certain category of passengers who like to get something for free.
  A guy was flying in economy. We were serving food, and I asked him, "Would you like chicken?" And he said, "I'm a vegetarian." And then added, "Last time they brought me food from business class."
  I would have offered it anyway out of politeness, but he was acting suspiciously. Maybe I would have believed him if it wasn't for the strong smell of bacon chips coming from him. So, I decided to teach him a lesson.
  I went to first class and came back with a silver tray. I explained that unfortunately the vegetarian business class option had run out, then he went to cut me off so he could complain, but I held up my hand and said, "However, I managed to go one step further, and I got the last vegetarian meal from first class." Then I pulled the linen cloth off the top of the tray as I placed the salad down in front of him. You should have seen his face. © Troikos / Reddit

And if you'd like to find out what unspoken rules flight attendants have to follow, check out this article.