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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think having to 'pay back' 2 paracetamol is very weird?

137 replies

bamboostalks · 29/04/2009 20:24

Had shocking period pains at work last week so asked if anyone had any tablets. Colleague (who has always seemed normal) gave me 2 parcetamol (generic now, nothing fancy). Thought no more of it. Today she says, " Sorry Bamboo but wonder whether you have those 2 paracetamol you owe me?" I was goggling at her trying to work out what she meant and she promptly reminded me of the situation. How bizarre is that? I was so miffed that I nipped out and bought her a packet and left them on her desk.

OP posts:

NoseyHelen · 29/04/2009 23:13

I once had to pay a house-mate 2p that he'd lent me, only 1hr after he'd lent it, when he knew I hadn't got any change yet.

NorkyButNice · 30/04/2009 07:13

For some (very sad) reason I was thinking about this last night in bed!

It occurred to me that if I'd been in your position and needed the painkillers, I'd probably have said "does anyone have a couple of paracetamol I could borrow?" - in which case, if she took it literally, she'd be quite right to ask for them back

Not that I would, obviously...

BalloonSlayer · 30/04/2009 07:26

The aspergers post made me as I was thinking it was the sort of thing my late Dad would have done, and he was mildly autistic.

He once came round and I gave him a punnet of strawberries. He offered to pay and I said, oh no, just have them. He then presented me with a thin book he had found for me. I offered to pay and he said "oh yes, it's £1.50. I wouldn't ask but I had to pay the man..."

After he died we had a call from one of his train friends to ask whether they could keep a tunnel or something of Dad's that he happened to have (it was no earthly use to us anyway). He said that Dad had owed him £10.50 so perhaps that would call it quits. Of course we said: fine, fine, whatever but I shudder to think of my reaction if there hadn't been that swapsie available; if one of his mates had rung asking for £10.50 after he had just died.

fizzpops · 30/04/2009 08:11

theyoungvisiter - I'm sure it would have some effect but I wouldnn't feel right psychologically. My problem I am sure!

fizzpops · 30/04/2009 08:15

Students are a different matter entirely.

I well remember the 'borrowing' of milk and the implication that someone was doing someone a massive favour. Everyone was skint so if one person had been generous and bought a pint of milk to share they would have found pretty soon that they were the only one to buy milk ever!

BouncingTurtle · 30/04/2009 08:19

OMG - they are about 20p for a pack of 16 in Tesco!

I hate owing anything, and if I was in your shoes, I would have offered to replaced them next time I had some with me - it's just polite.
But to actively ask for them back is just plain weird.

SoupDragon · 30/04/2009 08:26

She "said that they were her last ones and she doesn't like to be without a supply. "

Give her a break.

Amapoleon · 30/04/2009 08:34

Some people are just tight. I remember a colleague asking another colleague for the 2 pence back that he had given him. The colleague had been 2p short for a cup of tea.

There's nowt so queer as folk!

Docbunches · 30/04/2009 08:40

YANBU - she could've easily just bought herself some more if she didn't like being without a supply. To ask for someone to pay back two paracetemol is just plain tight.

dizzy154 · 30/04/2009 08:41

how strange?

if she had bought you a box of them id understand & replace them but thats a little over the top...... never ask her for a plaster!..lol

Original poster

bamboostalks · 30/04/2009 08:43

Just have to add, saw over her shoulder this morning, a post it on her pc with my name and paracetamol on it (along with other reminders) which has now been ticked off! She hasn't referred to the whole packet though or acknowledged the payback in any way. Odd. Very. She has a great Fendi handbag though hanging on her chair. Not that taht is relevant, just adds to the randomness.

OP posts:

UpSinceCrapOClock · 30/04/2009 08:45

at the 'paying back' but even more at the post-it!

(I'm thinking that you should have opened the packet you bought, taken the 2 you owed out then cut a little bit of a third to give her as interest?! )

UpSinceCrapOClock · 30/04/2009 08:46

off

pillowcase · 30/04/2009 08:56

OK things worth more than 2p, but this stingy person I'll never forget...

Was 15 and went on a 3 week exchange to France. (My penpal had been in our house for 3 weeks the previous summer and we had wined and dined her and brought her to lot of places etc.)

They brought me skiing for an afternoon (we were near Grenoble), they brought me out one night for a pizza, they allowed me to phone home once a week. At the end of the 3 weeks the mother asked me for about 30 pounds to cover those 3 specific things. I was dumbfounded. I had only brought about that in spending money and had already spent 1/2. I told her I only had about 15. She suggested I ask my parents to transfer it out to them. F**rs!

And no they weren't poor. They had 2 mercs, a swimming pool, a cook and a cleaner...

Saltire · 30/04/2009 09:18

Once at MILs house I said " do you have a couple of cotton buds I could have". Duly got 2 from her. next time she visited us she came downstairs with 2 in her hand "I've taken back the 2 cotton buds you borrowed", she had taken 2 from the tub in the bathroom.

snigger · 30/04/2009 09:33

Reeling in incredulity at this thread.

Can you ask her to loan you some sellotape, and pointedly measure it for accuracy's sake? Or start up a stapler timeshare and rake in the cash?

What a very odd woman - I have a drawer full of drugs and wet wipes and breath mints at work, and everyone raids it - but everyone also donates to it, so it goes around and comes around, and no-one has headaches or bad breath - win-win.

expatinscotland · 30/04/2009 09:34

Most people like this don't have ASD, they're just tight.

But they're allowed to continue to behave this way because people are too shocked and embarrassed to front them.

I'm too mouthy to tolerate people like this.

Salty, if my MIL did that I'd have squawked, 'OMG, how rude, pawing around in people's private things, in their bathrooms, like a common thief instead of just asking! What in God's name is wrong with you?!'

ebd · 30/04/2009 09:38

This reminds me of when I was at school and got my period unexpectedly (I was 12). I went to the nurses room (this was in the day when they had on-site nurses in schools) and she gave me s sanitary pad. The next day she came to find me in the playground and asked for a replacement pad.

snigger · 30/04/2009 09:42

Mind you, I guess there are plenty of people out there who find a 'source' and exploit it fully - I remember being desperately disappointed in human nature when they removed the free nappies and wipes from the baby changing room in Tesco - I never used them, but I thought it was a very child friendly thing to do - and the assistant told me it was because people were coming in early, emptying the supplies, then coming back later for seconds.

Greedy people suck.

Wintersun · 30/04/2009 09:58

I 'borrowed' 2 nurofen from a colleague on Monday. They're an expensive pain killer aren't they?
It never occurred to me to pay her back. I'd better get some just in case

What odd behaviour.

Greensleeves · 30/04/2009 10:03

I disagree expat, tight is one thing but having a post-it on your desk reminding you to claim back two paracetamol sounds like ASD to me!

Kimi · 30/04/2009 10:07

Maybe she is an addict of going to kill herself and really needed the extra two pills

expatinscotland · 30/04/2009 10:07

She may or may not have ASD, Greeny, but a lot of people who do stuff like this don't.

We all know them, the people who duck out of the pub when it's their round, who go out to dinner and quibble over the bill, who, like Saltire's MIL in the other thread, paw around your bathroom to get her 2 borrowed cotton buds back, etc.

tootyflooty · 30/04/2009 10:27

at family sunday roasts, we have the roast spud debate, ie you ate one while dinner was being dished up so you should have one less now !!! strange how we never have the same converasation about the brocoli!!, roast spuds i can understand, but the paracetamol , did you give her a whole new box, and if so did she just take the 2 you owed her? some people are very strange.

mamof3 · 30/04/2009 10:30

lmao

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