It is unlikely that any of us can accurately foresee the consequences of our actions. It seems that our intentions are good, but in the end everything goes wrong. Of course, we can try to make it up to the person or turn it into a joke, but sometimes the outcome can’t be changed.
Story1
My husband gave me a shower gel for my birthday. I didn’t show it to him, but I got really offended, because we had no money problems. I checked that his company was okay, and we had enough money in our bank account so that he could buy me at least a bunch of flowers.
I looked closely at the gel, and he knew that I hated that fragrance. I ended up crying and poured the gel down the toilet. My husband came home happy and said, “Did you find it?”
Turns out he’d put the ring in the bottle cap. He wanted to surprise me. So, he had to retrieve it from the toilet himself. © Overheard / Ideer
Story2
I had a friend. She was brought up by her great-aunt and lived with her. Her life was hard, and she was always depressed. I felt sorry for her. I wanted to make her happy.
I was away on her birthday, so I bought her a present in advance and asked my husband to give it to her. He brought it, I was online at the time, and saw everything. My husband handed the present to her and left immediately.
A month later she texted me that she fell in love with my husband and to make her happy I should leave him for her. And then she started threatening me. I will never deal with people like her anymore! © Overheard / Ideer
Story3
My uncle took me and my brother in because he wanted us to get a good education. My mom and dad agreed, as they knew that my uncle would be able to give us a better shot at making something of ourselves.
My uncle’s intentions were good. However, my uncle’s wife made our lives hell. She basically mistreated us and my uncle was unable to do anything about it. So his inaction made him complicit.
Even through the hardships, my brother and I still managed to get an education, but my uncle’s reputation was affected negatively. Family members don’t see him the same way, and his wife is really disliked (to put it mildly). It started with good intentions, but it didn’t end well for my uncle. © ksoss1 / Reddit
Story4
Once upon a time, I found a wallet on the beach. Having lost my own more than once, and not having it returned to me, I am aware that it is a stressful life event. So, my first thought was how to return it quickly.
Looking through the contents, the owner was from out of state and there was no contact information other than the driver’s license. Aside from that, only a few credit cards and some cash. Not knowing how long ago the owner had left, I thought, “Let’s just sit here for a while, and maybe he will return looking for it,” since it is the first thing I would do.
After a couple hours of fun and sun, we needed to move on; my next best idea was to turn it into the local police station, which we found easily enough just down the street. What I thought would be a quick in and out turned into a full on interrogation session during which I was, at one point, accused of theft/robbery. It was a bizarre experience, to say the least, which wasted an hour of our day. © notawhingymillenial / Reddit
Story5
I was around 11. I was at a restaurant with my entire extended family (like 50 people) and the waitress was carrying a lot of drinks. I always want to help people, it’s in my nature to try and be useful. So I said, “I’ll help you!” Even though she was doing her job very well.
The panic in her eyes as I lifted up my drink from her server plate. The annoyance of multiple drinks then tipped due to the imbalance of weight I had just caused. The apologies were not enough. I felt so bad.
It’s been 13 years and I still think about it on occasion. That was my biggest “don’t help people if they don’t want it.” Because I was just trying to help. My intentions were good, but man did I cause a massive mess. © stormthief77 / Reddit
And here’s a story of a woman who wants to divorce her husband because of his birthday gift. Check it out.