Spiking your food to stop the lunch thieve, is that morally ok?

  • Spiking your food to stop the lunch thieve, is that morally ok?


    This was a big discussion on reddit and now on social media in general (among oldies ofc)


    Here are two scenarios that happened


    1. A lady constantly had her lunch stolen and eaten before her lunch break. So she decided to mix ghost pepper with the mayo for her sandwich. The lunch thief ended up having a bad reaction and he was outed.
    2. A guy who was diabetic kept gummy bears in his desk for when he needed a sugar boost. Someone unknown kept eating it all(without permission ofc) so he replaced them with laxative gummy bears. The person who munched the whole bag ended up crapping their pants.


    One side thinks if you put sth in your food knowingly that someone will eat it, you are legally and morally responsible for what happens to them.


    The other side thinks, grown adults are responsible for eating unidentified items themselves. There is always risk there.


    What do you guys think?

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  • yeah. it's not food they're being offered or sold and are taking without the owner's consent. it could contain anything and they don't know. that's the risk they actively take by being assholes.


    both those things are edible too, so it's not like it's poison. :nct6:

    N Ξ O C I T Y

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  • It's a grey area, but I feel like you're technically preparing the food for yourself because if no one takes it then it will continue to be your lunch even if you choose not to eat it later so I say it's good.

  • morally yes


    legally I think not since if I remembering reading stories like these on reddit the general consensus is one cannot booby trap one's one food...

    What if it's a real simple everyday ingredient you use and unknowingly the thief has allergy to it.


    Realistically I can not insure my daily food is safe to consume for all.

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  • yeah. it's not food they're being offered or sold and are taking without the owner's consent. it could contain anything and they don't know. that's the risk they actively take by being assholes.


    both those things are edible too, so it's not like it's poison. :nct6:

    There was a guy who let ham mold around his house for a week and made a special sandwich for the thief.


    In that case, I would say they should slow the fuck down


    Rancid ham can kill

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  • So let's think about this - I have a peanut butter cookie on my desk. I've done nothing to it. Someone comes and decides to eat it without realizing it contains nuts and it triggers their peanut allergy. Am I responsible?


    No if I knew that person had a severe peanut allergy and purposely put the peanut butter cookie out for him to eat, then yes, you are guilty, but that precludes you knowing who is stealing your food and choosing to basically "poison" them instead of just confront them.

  • I think my moral compass is broken then

    you must've gotten your compass from


    Dead Men Tell No Tales proves continuity still doesn't matter for the  Pirates of the Caribbean films - The Verge

    What if it's a real simple everyday ingredient you use and unknowingly the thief has allergy to it.


    Realistically I can not insure my daily food is safe to consume for all.

    exactly which is why I said morally it's fine but legally it might not be...


    since morally one doesn't expect others to eat one's food and thus morally one is free to lace one's own food with whatever drugs or ingredients one chooses...the harming of one self isn't morally wrong since it hurts no one other than oneself...

  • There was a case where an old man's home kept being broken into by teenagers, and the police couldn't do much for him. He ended up waiting for them in the basement with a shotgun and killed both of them. The man went to jail, and while these teens shouldn't have went into his home he shouldn't have killed them.


    You essentially poisoning your food knowing someone is going to be harmed by it is not morally correct.

    I don't think both cases are comparable

    He actively shot them


    In this case, they just leave their food in a place it should not be touched but it is.

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  • So let's think about this - I have a peanut butter cookie on my desk. I've done nothing to it. Someone comes and decides to eat it without realizing it contains nuts and it triggers their peanut allergy. Am I responsible?


    No if I knew that person had a severe peanut allergy and purposely put the peanut butter cookie out for him to eat, then yes, you are guilty, but that precludes you knowing who is stealing your food and choosing to basically "poison" them instead of just confront them.

    These people didn't know who is stealing their food


    but they knew someone does and they will get hit

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  • But you know that they will eat it, and you poisoned it

    Just as the old man knew these teens would walk into his home, waiting to ambush them

    So what would you do? Go hungry day after day?

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  • But you know that they will eat it, and you poisoned it

    Just as the old man knew these teens would walk into his home, waiting to ambush them

    that's a legal issue not a moral one by my counts...


    morally the underlying theme is to defend one's life and property

    if we come from this basis then one would argue that self-defense and defense of one's home/property is moral


    if we agree to that then it would be justified to lace one's own food or lay booby traps or even ambush teens on the basis of defense of one's property and possessions no?

  • No, but you dont poison someone. Wtf?

    Well ghost pepper and laxative aren't really poison


    Also in both cases the HR didn't do anything for them


    So what else could have they done?


    The first lady was a nurse who worked 16h shifts and that lunch was the only food she could have eaten all day. She even tried to make two sandwiches and left a letter begging the thieve to only eat one. He ate both. She put a lock on her bag, thieve ripped the bag.

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  • What if it's a real simple everyday ingredient you use and unknowingly the thief has allergy to it.


    Realistically I can not insure my daily food is safe to consume for all.

    Then that's on the person who took the lunch I would think.


    I think it only becomes a liability if said person knew you prepared the lunch specifically for them and they told you "hey I'm allergic to tomato" and then you made them a sandwich with secret tomato and let them believe it was tomato free.

  • My neighbor lined her fence with nails to stop burglers. It's her private property...

  • They didn't use poison. I'd probably use food coloring or something more inert, but I'm hard pressed to feel sad for the "victim" here

    Back in high school days, my manager used to eat minimum wage teenage workers lunches while he ate a comfy 6 figures salary.


    If I go back in time, I'm pretty sure I will spike my food for him lmao

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  • Spiking food means poisoning it, not making it spicy. If you wanna make it unbearable to eat then go ahead

    But you are not really offering a counter solution to those people either

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  • Tell me Felina

    Will I be jailed for eating extra spicy food?

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  • Morally you are not to harm a living, breathing human over something replaceable. That is not what a good person would do, especially if the human being is just annoying you and not threatening your life

    aahhh ok so you don't believe that it's morally correct to be able to defend one's property...okie dokie...


    we'll start from here I guess


    do you then believe it's appropriate morally speaking to harm anybody stealing anything? jewerllery? cars? etc etc or is there degrees of morality that it's ok to harm in certain situations but not the one OP describes?



  • agreed. also that story of the teens breaking in reminds me of the movie Don't Breathe. if someone broke into my house i would shoot and kill them. no questions asked. i don't know what their intentions are with me or my family and i'm not about to find out, whether i knew they were coming or not. it's moral in my eyes and apparently it is in the eyes of the law too (Castle Doctrine).


    obviously it's wrong to kill someone over food but all negative actions have their consequences.

  • So to you its either poison someone or nothing? I said peppers are okay, you think spiking food with drugs or something harmful is the solution?

    I didn't say drug


    I gave two examples

    One was pepper the other laxative

    there is still a chance someone will have a bad reaction to both


    Also idk what I will really do in this case


    If I go hungry everyday I might get angry enough to add ghost pepper in my lunch

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  • look at this discourse 873743448077910046.gif?size=96&quality=lossless

    I'm bringing in good discussions lmao

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  • My neighbor lined her fence with nails to stop burglers. It's her private property...

    I'm not versed on booby trap laws and homeownership laws but I'm not sure whether that would classify as a booby trap since I've seen steel gates and fences with sharp spikes like these


    A Row Of Black Sharp Iron Fence Bars Stock Photo, Picture And Royalty Free  Image. Image 120096638.


    and they seem to be legal but the question raised is if that's morally acceptable to which I'm generally in the affirmative...


    if the question is whether it is legally defensible then yes sharp fences yes booby trap bombs probably a bit excessive in my opinion

  • agreed. also that story of the teens breaking in reminds me of the movie Don't Breathe. if someone broke into my house i would shoot and kill them. no questions asked. i don't know what their intentions are with me or my family and i'm not about to find out, whether i knew they were coming or not. it's moral in my eyes and apparently it is in the eyes of the law too (Castle Doctrine).


    obviously it's wrong to kill someone over food but all negative actions have their consequences.

    I mean I won't shoot someone but if someone breaks into my house, If I get the chance I will hit them hard enough to knock them out


    I don't think I will feel bad about it

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