18 Stories When Everything Didn’t Go as Planned

Sometimes an ordinary story suddenly ends in a way that makes you want to exclaim, “What?!” It is the unexpected twists and turns that make simple tales truly exciting. In this article, we put together stories that can truly amaze.

The article contains images created by artificial intelligence.

• When I was in the early stages of dating my spouse, I brought her to my hometown to meet my parents. While looking at an old family photo album, she pointed to a picture and said, “How do you know this man?” I answered, “That’s my uncle,” and she said, “No, he’s my uncle!”
  Turns out her mother’s sister married my mother’s brother. © Bongo_Goblogian / Reddit
• A friend and his girlfriend were exchanging holiday gifts. He proposed to her, and she gave him a letter thanking him for all the time they spent together and saying she wanted to break up. These were “awesome” gifts. © treschenko24 / X
• I was lying in the hospital for a while. It so happened that a woman of my age was put in my room. Something in her face seemed familiar to me, but I couldn’t remember where I had seen her before. Of course, lying in bed is boring, so we started talking for days on end.
  Word after word, and we found out we were in the same kindergarten! It’s been 30 years since then. Life is an interesting thing: you don’t know where and who you’ll meet next time. © Chamber 6 / VK
• I’m a waitress. I work very hard. All I have in my head are tables, receipts and orders. After another shift, my sister tries to wake me up to go to work. I stubbornly refuse to get up, cover myself with a pillow.
  Through my sleep, I start shouting, “Kate, you’re impossible! And I’m not handling your table!” I think I’m tired... © Overheard / VK

• My wife can be strange sometimes, but she’s the perfect woman for me. I warned my mom to let go because she likes to be in control.
  One day, my mom got a copy of our keys and came round in the afternoon. She moved things around, threw something out, poured chemicals into the toilet and bathtub so that the “lazy” daughter-in-law would finally clean.
  My wife didn’t start calling my mom and scolding with her. She snatched my spare key to my parent’s flat and went there the next day. I don’t know what she did there, but in the evening my mother called in hysterics and my laughing father tried to calm her down.
  2 years passed, our son was born. The parents came to visit us. Toward the end of the evening, my mother couldn’t help herself and started telling the baby that his mom was doing everything wrong about him.
  My wife immediately said to me, “See, your mom knows everything about babies, let’s give her the grandson for a couple of weeks! I’ll rest after the birth, and you’ll get a good night’s sleep.”
  My mom immediately said that everything is perfect, and the grandson is perfectly fine. And since then she has been pestering everyone except my wife and son. © Overheard / Ideer
• I remember my childhood friend sobbing when her mom came home with a new baby. But not because she didn’t want a younger sibling. She just wanted her mom to give birth to a hamster! © pirozhenshchina / X
• I went on one of my rare business trips, this time with a partner — a new hire. On the way, we got to know each other better.
  Before leaving, he invited me to a café. That’s where he frankly surprised me, “I love business trips. This is the only way I can cheat on my wife.” I asked, “How do you find time, we are together all the time?”
  And my partner said, “I’ve been married for 8 years, she is a wonderful woman, a great cook. But everything is strictly according to classical recipes, from natural food. After 2 years of living together, I tried to take my wife to my old friends and relatives. But she always stays true to herself — no experiments and innovations. So now I’m cheating on her.”
  Looking round, he continued, “With these cutlets in fragrant spices.” © CEMEH67 / Pikabu

• When I was a kid, we used to drive past this old abandoned school on a hill on the way to the grocery store. I always thought it would be cool to make it a house and live there. Years later, someone tore down the school and built a house there.
  I was an adult then and had my own kids and was living in a house with a leaky basement. As I was driving my kids to the grocery store, I would pass this house and think, it must be nice and dry living up on that hill. I bet he doesn’t have a leaky basement.
  Fast-forward a few more years, I am divorced and remarried. We are looking to buy a house. A guy my wife works with is selling his house.
  It turns out he had that very same house on the hill. I live here now and am writing this comment from my nice dry house on the hill. © Wyzard_of_Wurdz / Reddit
• I work in a tough, male-dominated workplace. I’m short and pretty. And I love to go fishing in summer. I invited one mate from work to fish. The whole team laughed at me.
  When we got into the boat and sailed far enough, I somehow immediately caught a huge carp! 7 pounds. I wish you could see the face of my coworker. No one laughs at me at work anymore. © Overheard / VK
• I had a bad period in my life, I was fired from work. There were no good vacancies, I was worried about it. I remembered about the certificate for massage, which I was given. I decided to relax a little and immediately made an appointment.
  That same evening after the massage, this studio sent me a questionnaire for a review and I filled it out out of boredom, although I usually ignore messages like this. I pointed out what I liked and what I did not like. I also added a list for improvements.
  A couple of days later, I got a call from a woman who introduced herself as the owner of the studio and asked if I wanted to work as an administrator, because she and the whole team were delighted with my useful review.
  I agreed to come to the interview without much hope, but everything turned out for the best: I was first taken to work as an administrator, and now I manage all the massage studios of this company in our city. That’s the real “luck”! © Chamber 6 / VK
• I met twin brothers while traveling in Asia. A few years later, I met them accidentally on a different continent. A few years afterwards, I met them accidentally again at a music festival with 200,000 people in a totally different country. © kahrabaaa / Reddit

• I was “counselling” one of my friends on how to start a relationship with a girl. I am not the best counselor (which I warned him about in advance), but I managed to give a couple of tips. We met once at work, chatted, and at the end he gave me a letter to have a look. And he left.
  The next day, I give back the letter with corrected errors (what if she’s a grammatical nerd) and say that she would like it... Who knew that this letter was for me. © Overheard / VK
• I went out to go to the shop. I’m walking through the yard, and a lady comes up to me, “Sir, could you help me?” She is walking from a snowdrift that was a car 3 days ago. She has a shovel and a brush in her hands.
  I ask, “Do you want me to dig out and brush your car?” The lady nods and holds out the tools. Being a polite person, I didn’t want to refuse her right away, so I said, “If the tools are yours, then it’s $100.”
  I thought that now she would start whining, and I would just move on. But 2 minutes later, I get an SMS about the transfer, and the lady calmly goes home, leaving me with a shovel, a brush and a deadline of one hour. I’ve never made money so hard before. And, most frustratingly, I volunteered myself. © XBOCT.KOTA / Pikabu
• My sister came over, we sat down to drink tea. She noticed that the plastic sugar bowl had a small crack, so she broke it in half and threw it away. By the way, money is tight, I barely have enough for food, because I am a full-time student and my parents are retired. I had no plans to buy new crockery!
  I said to my sister, “Olivia, we don’t live in ancient times, when people believed in signs. I’d better buy my mom some medicine.” My sister looked at me and replied, “You can have your own opinion. But cracked crockery attracts poverty and disease into the house.”
  And she broke my mother’s mug, which also had a crack in it, and some plates. I don’t know about signs, but too smart relatives certainly bring unnecessary expenses. © Overheard / VK

• I live in Canada. In the summer, my family went on vacation to Florida, and we stayed at this hotel in Daytona Beach. One night, while my dad was getting ice from the machine, our next door neighbor from home came up behind him to get ice as well. When my dad turned around and saw who it was, they were both surprised.
  Turns out our next door neighbors from home were staying in the room next to us at the hotel, and not only that, but they had booked their room for the same 4 days that we did. Considering neither family even knew the other was going on vacation, it was a pretty amazing coincidence. © EventHorizon5 / Reddit
• The bathtub broke. I called a plumber. He came in, took off his jacket, got to work.
  15 minutes later, I hear water running. I think, “Wow, that was fast!” I walk into the bathroom — and I can’t believe my eyes.
  The plumber got into the fixed tub and started taking a shower! That’s it. I’m never calling a plumber to my home again. © Overheard / Ideer
• A friend had bad luck with guys. I said, “If you need help, let me know.” One day she asked for my brother’s number.
  Turns out she had a plan. She met a guy and wanted my brother to be her “brother” temporarily. So she can feel confident when the guy comes over to her place.
  My brother went there, and my friend instructed him, “The guy’s name is Andrew. When he comes, open the door, and go to the kitchen.” The doorbell rang, the brother opened the door, “Are you Andrew? Come in, my sister is waiting for you.”
  He nodded, went into the room. A second later, there was laughter. It turned out that her father came over. So, he found out that he also had a “son.” © Chamber 6 / VK

And here are more stories with an unexpected twist at the end.