16 Gift-Giving Stories That Didn’t Work Out as Planned

It’s a real art to know how to give gifts, as well as to know how to receive them. Sometimes you want to please a person, you choose a present carefully, and they snort unhappily, “Why is the ring not gold?” Though sometimes you can relate to those who receive gifts. How else can you react when you are presented with an aubergine for your birthday? And there are those who give their own presents to other people.

• The other day I accidentally looked into the monitor of a coworker, and he was choosing a bouquet online. He sees bouquets for $50 and says, “Ew, cheap!” He stopped at an option for $300. It was very beautiful!
  I was envious, but not for long: my coworker chose a bouquet, and then took a screenshot of it and sent the picture to someone via messenger with the caption, “Helen, happy birthday!” © Homicide Stories / VK
• Just now, my younger sister gave me a chocolate bar. I asked her why she was being so generous. She spent a long time convincing me that she wanted to make me happy.
  Though when I took the first bite, she confessed that it was expired... I looked at the package, and it said month 6 instead of month 5. After that, she grabbed the chocolate and shouted, “Don’t eat it, it’s mine!” © Chamber No. 6 / VK
• The daughter-in-law gave away her son’s clothes, so she posted photos of them and wrote that they were for a boy of 5 years old. A woman called literally a few minutes later. A teenager came and took everything.
  And then a man called and began to explain that they urgently needed clothes for a 1-month-old girl. The daughter-in-law got confused and said that they didn’t have a baby girl yet. © Tatiana P. / Dzen

• I wanted to be a fairy godmother to someone. I have a ring with amber, so I decided to give it to a girl from a family in need to make her happy. I asked her mother, and she said, “Is it gold?” I was confused and said no. And she replied, “Then we don’t need it.” Well, I’ll wear it myself. © Sonya Marmeladova / Dzen
• A good friend of mine has a lot of relatives (brothers, sisters, nephews, uncles, aunts). So, they celebrate birthdays almost twice a week. Well, they use a funny trick — they give each other a receipt, for example, for $300. When the giver’s birthday comes, the receipt is given back. Everyone is happy, no complaints. © Unknown author / Pikabu
• On Mother’s Day, my mother-in-law gave me a wonderful set: a gift bag with an opened expired facial cream, a balloon and a chocolate medal. And for my birthday, she gave me an aubergine, because “you love the color purple.” These are my personal top gifts. © user6708034 / Pikabu
• I was about 13 years old. I remember I wanted to surprise my mum like in the movies. When you open your eyes in the morning and there’s a cake with candles and breakfast in bed. I even managed to secretly buy a cake and agreed with my neighbor to keep it in her fridge until morning. I crawled around like a mouse in the morning, just so I wouldn’t wake her up too early and have time to decorate the room.
  And here’s the moment of truth. I say her name and stand with this cake and with lit candles next to the bed. Mum heard my voice and jumped out of bed with wild eyes. When she woke up, she thought there was a fire and started screaming. In the end: I was shocked, my mum was shocked too. © Anonymous3553431 / Overheard / Ideer
  

• I recently told my girlfriend that I couldn’t come to her place. I got ready, bought some goodies and flowers. Told her friend she was out with to take her to the subway station in an hour. And there I was. The friend brought my beloved, and here I am with a bouquet.
  I thought she would kiss me and hug me, but instead I got slapped in the face with these exact flowers for lying. Later she apologized, of course, but I don’t give her flowers with thorns anymore. © Overheard / Ideer
• I placed an ad in the group “Give away for free.” I was giving away an automatic atomizer for air freshener without batteries. There was a photo and description. A woman wrote to me asking where to pick it up and when.
  But I was blown away by the question she asked after that, “What is it and how to use it?” Some people are so greedy for free stuff that they don’t care what to take as long as it is free. © Ward 6 | Stories Anonymous / Telegram
• My husband makes enough money to dress well, but he doesn’t care what he looks like. He buys 4 pairs of socks, a pair of jeans and a couple of T-shirts and then wears them all year round. Once, I gave him a homewear set of checked shorts and a blue T-shirt for his birthday because I was sick of seeing him walking around the house in worn-out T-shirts and pants. So, he’s been wearing it to work in the summer for 2 years already! © Overheard / Ideer

• I dated a guy for 6 months, but we went our separate ways. He demanded his gifts back! His gifts for 6 months were 2 slimes which I don’t need, a wooden puzzle which he put together himself, a few jigsaw puzzles which he also put together himself, a joystick (I don’t play games), a bathrobe (the one from a thrift store), 3 ridiculous statuettes, a few “beautiful stones” which he brought from his holiday at sea (just smooth rubble).
  After giving them back, the house became much cleaner, more spacious, no rubbish on the shelves. And now he texts me, “I could be a generous lover, but you made your own choice.” Yes, you could have brought me another pound of stones and twigs, how will I live without this useless rubbish in my house?! © Chamber 6 / VK
• My granddaughter didn’t want to eat vegetable purées, so we had 4 boxes of unopened jars. We posted an ad that we’d give them away for free. One woman called and said, “I have a small child, it’s inconvenient to go with him to you, could you bring it to our house?”
  I ended up giving the food to another woman. She lived in the neighboring house and took everything the same day. © Valentina Mishnyaeva / Dzen
• My girlfriend wanted some kind of super expensive hair roller. For days and nights, she couldn’t stop talking about how cool it would be to have one. On February 14, I decided to please my beloved. I’d saved the necessary amount of money, asked her friends what to buy, and gave it to her. I expected a sea of joy, but she burst into tears.
  It turned out that if I gave such a gift, it means that I don’t like the way she looks. I didn’t understand the accusations, but I decided to apologize this time. I went back to the shop and returned the purchase. Bought a bouquet of flowers, came to apologize and then wanted to give her money.
  I ended up having the bouquet thrown at me and kicked out of the house. She called me all sorts of names because I returned the hair roller. I have a question: what should I have done? © Ward 6 | Stories Anonymous / Telegram

• My grandfather’s birthday was coming up. I kept thinking about what to get him. Last time I noticed that he was complaining about his old TV, saying that it didn’t work well. I decided to get him a new TV set. When the grandfather was out, I brought a new flat-screen TV set, installed it, and threw away the old one.
  Grandfather came back, I showed him the present, he was shocked by what he saw. I asked him, “Do you like it?” and my grandfather yelled, “Are you crazy? My whole stash was in that old TV set!” Then he went looking for that TV set... © Ward No. 6 | Anonymous Stories / Telegram
• My birthday is the 25th of December, and on one of them I was given Christmas tree tinsel. © sakurka37 / Pikabu
• We decided to celebrate the wedding modestly, without any money contests. But each guest, of course, brought an envelope. Toward the end of the evening, my cousin-uncle began to brag about how much he earns and how generous he is. And he demands, “Open my envelope, you’ll see for yourself!” He holds out his envelope, we open it in front of everyone, and it’s empty. Ward 6 / VK

And here’s a selection of the worst Secret Santa gifts ever. Check it out!