15 People Who Turned Petty Revenge Into an Art Form

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. But the heroes of this article proved that it can also be served incredibly elegantly and resourcefully. Here are 15 stories of people who faced brazenness, injustice, and betrayal, but instead of resorting to scandal, chose a brilliant plan. Here you can read about secret files on mistresses glued to wallpaper, or a mother-in-law who was taught a lesson.

• A friend was dating an actress, but she cheated on him, and they broke up. The girl loved attention, while the guy was consumed by resentment.
  So he saved up money and, knowing how important one performance was to her, bought almost all the tickets for the first 4 shows 6 months in advance. I don’t know what debts he got into, but the girl was devastated — only a few people saw her performance. © Overheard / Ideer

• My mother-in-law has a “lovely” habit of dropping by for a week or 2, and the first thing she does is clean. Which means rummaging through all the drawers, rearranging things, digging through the underwear, throwing out whatever from the fridge she doesn’t like, dramatically sighing and muttering something like: “What a mess!”
  It drives me nuts, makes my eye twitch. And then she went to a health retreat for 2 weeks, and I had a moment of revelation! I told my husband, let’s surprise your mom, she’ll come back tired and will be pleased.
  He took me over to her place, and I CLEANED! Thoroughly! Shook everything out from floor to ceiling, rearranged everything, scrubbed, polished, and even cooked a full fridge of food. The way she screamed! It made my ears ring! © Overheard / Ideer
• Someone kept leaving bags of trash in the hallway. A neighbor, a sweet old lady, accused us in front of everyone. She said she saw it with her own eyes. But we weren’t the ones!
  The landlady seemed to believe us, but everyone kept giving us the side-eye, and the trash kept showing up. Then suddenly another neighbor calls — I want to show you something. And he shows us a video on his phone, where, secretly filmed, the same old lady who accused us was caught planting the trash.
  We showed the video to everyone, proof of our innocence. Of course, the old lady yelled that she was set up, and it was edited, but everyone already understood the truth. © Not Everyone Will Understand / VK

• Went to a restaurant for brunch. Upon receiving my bill, I noticed a $3 charge for table linen.
  As I was leaving, I folded up the tablecloth. The waiter said, “What are you doing?” I said, “I paid for it, I’m taking it home.” And I did. © pierced7 / Reddit
• I gave my girlfriend a gift — a big box with a ribbon. She opens it, and inside is another box from an expensive shoe brand she was dreaming of. She opens it, and there’s a box with a new iPhone.
  She jumps, thrilled, opens it, and finds a note: “You’re not getting an iPhone or shoes. Have fun with your Antony. We’re breaking up.” I did my best. © Overheard / Ideer

• My wife and I have been freelancing and doing small trading jobs for 7 years, we also have our own little shop. All this time, my mother-in-law insisted we had to find a proper job instead of being idle.
  She has already told all the neighbors and the family that we don’t work and live off the grandmother’s pension only, with the 4 of us (me, my wife, son, and grandmother). The other day, my wife visited the mother-in-law, and her best friend was visiting too.
  Friend: “So, sweetheart, what do you do?”
  Wife, calmly chewing cake: “I’m unemployed. And my husband is unemployed too. We stay at home and live off grandma’s pension.”
  Mother-in-law: “Darling, what are you saying?! You have your own shop, you work from home.”
  Wife: “No, you said that it’s all just fooling around. You told all the neighbors, tell your friend the truth too.”
  Mother-in-law: “Now, stop chewing and tell my friend what businesses you’re engaged in and how you came to that!”
  Wife: “Why? We have nothing to eat at home, I’ll eat here. And you talk, don’t mind me.” © SVIHO** / Pikabu

• In our village, 2 neighbors had a little falling out. The older one was rude to the younger one.
  So, when the younger one shared this unpleasant story with me, she also revealed her plan for revenge: she plans to walk around her yard in a tiny bikini next summer to annoy the older neighbor and to cause conflict with her husband, who will undoubtedly be glancing over at the neighboring yard.
  It’s a ruthless plan. But I didn’t try to dissuade her. © serom / Pikabu
• There’s some unfinished business between my ex and me — a car, bought during our marriage with my money and registered in my name. Upon our divorce, we agreed that he would buy it from me.
  For 4 years, I haven’t seen a cent. Moreover, it turned out that he wasn’t paying child support to his son from his first marriage, using the excuse that he was supposedly paying me for the car. I found out about this after speaking with the first ex, and we hatched a plan.
  The first ex asked him for the car to take their son to the doctor. He coordinated this with me, added her to the insurance policy and brought the car to her house, from where I took it along with the keys and documents.
  Today, I informed him that he’s a pedestrian now. He had a meltdown, screaming that “those deceitful women set me up.” I wished him happiness in his new marriage, blocked him everywhere completely, and I feel simply wonderful. © Fabius.Bile / Pikabu

• A roommate just ghosted me after falling several months rent behind. I had randomly come across his social security card and I had all of his information. I thought about being very devious. But in the end I think I picked the most effective method.
  I showed up at his mother’s house, where I assumed he’d moved back to. He answered the door looking all uncomfortable. I asked if his mother was home, I needed to talk to her. He asked why, and I just repeated my request to speak with his mother.
  I explained to her that he owed me X amount of money, and would she be kind enough to pay his debts for him. She did. I bet he still cringes thinking about that conversation. It sure makes me laugh. © funklab / Reddit
• I was riding the bus, a group next to me was blasting rap music. I asked them to put on headphones — to no avail. Then another passenger decided to troll me and started playing his own music. The driver didn’t care at all.
  I finally lost my patience and took extreme measures, announcing, “Since we’re not keeping it quiet, I’ll sing!” Now, it should be noted that while I don’t have the best voice, I am a trained vocalist from childhood. I can at least avoid sounding like a strangled cat... If I want to. I didn’t want to.
  So, I began singing “The Song That Never Ends” loudly, hoarsely, and off-key. The troll needed just one verse to put on headphones. Within a minute, the whole bus was yelling at the first passengers to either put on headphones or turn off the music. We rode the rest of the way in blissful silence. © leathebimbo / Reddit

• Hello, my name is Michael, I’m 38 years old, and I sneezed right in my colleague’s face. “Why did you do that?” you might ask. It’s simple.
  I asked him 3 times to cover his mouth when he sneezed, and each time he made excuses like, “I didn’t have time,” or “I had my phone in my hands,” or “Oh, come on, I’m not contagious.” Now he always covers his mouth. As they say, fight fire with fire. © mishkapeterburg / Pikabu
• I had quite an argument with my husband. I wanted to be a bit dramatic, so I took off my wedding ring and placed it on the dresser to upset him. By evening, we made up, but the ring was gone!
  We searched the whole apartment for 2 days, and even grilled our 2-year-old daughter, just in case she had taken it. Never thought I’d end up digging through the garbage container outside our home.
  After 20 minutes of humiliating searching by the dumpster, I came home, and my husband suddenly “remembered” that he had hung it on the chandelier for some reason and forgot! © Overheard / Ideer

• I have a friend, Tanya. She had a boyfriend who was kind, caring, and attentive. He bought an apartment, and they lived there together, doing expensive renovations.
  One day, Tanya comes home from work to find her things packed in suitcases sitting in the hallway. The guy had locked himself inside and wasn’t answering her calls. She came over to my place to stay the night.
  The next morning, her boyfriend went to work, so Tanya rushed over to his apartment to pick up small things he forgot to pack, and she found a neat little notebook. It turned out to be a record on all his women.
  That’s when my Tanya discovered that just a week ago, while she was painting the walls in his apartment, he was out having fun with some girl. 10 days before that — another girl, and 2 weeks before that, someone else... There were about 20 girls, and nearly 40 pages.
  Tanya is a graceful girl, not one for quarrels, but this couldn’t go unpunished, right? She cried for a couple of hours, then took apart that notebook and glued the pages all over his exquisite wallpaper. And on the expensive tiles. And on the linoleum. With some kind of super strong glue.
  Of course, he tore off the papers. But the glue stayed forever. He had to redo the renovation, putting in a ton of money again.
  He called her himself that evening. After 3 minutes, she was tired of listening to his yelling, and hung up. She wasn’t completely over it, but it helped quite a bit. © Deleted User / ADME

• An important paper disappeared from my table. I asked my family, and they were like, “No need to scatter trash around, everything should be in its place!”
  The next day, all surfaces in the apartment were spotlessly clean (I collected combs, notes, a hairdryer, etc.). But since then, they’ve been asking for permission to throw away even my candy wrapper. © Whitekun / Pikabu
• Some girl in the movie theater put her feet up on the back of my friend’s seat. He asked her to take them down, but she didn’t care. We called a theater employee, but as soon as he walked away, she put them back up!
  So I just sat behind her and put my feet on her chair. She tried to complain, but I advised her to just watch the film. I didn’t take my feet down until the end of the show. © deliasen / Reddit

Do you agree that these stories are a real guide to an elegant exit from conflict? Which of these “revenge operations” impressed you the most? And do you have your own story of how you managed to serve a “cold dish” in the most graceful way? Share your stories in the comments!

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