Malicious Compliance

Thanks for building up this community here! I used to love reading it on reddit. I have a story from many years ago, I'm not a good storyteller but I'll try!

I used to work in a motel. Some guests are chatty, some are just curt. That's fine, some people came off a long drive and just want to sleep, I completely understand. But some people were just plain rude for no good reason.

I was doing an overnight shift when a man came to check in. I could already tell he wasn't nice by the way he threw his ID on the counter. When I was processing his reservation, he was tapping his fingers on the counter constantly. His assigned room happened to be pretty far away from the main lobby. Once I gave him his keycard, he took a look at the room and said "this room is too far away. I want a room that's nearer.

I checked the system, but we were pretty full up that night and there wasn't anything closer, not even if I cleared him for an upgrade. I told him we had no rooms that were closer, and he starting cursing at me. "Come on, look harder, don't be stupid, you didn't even try". Ok, rude again but whatever. I know how to use the system and I can see we have nothing left, but I pretend to click around a bit (sometimes that helps calm people down) and say "sorry, no, there really isn't anything". He cursed me and went to get his bags from the car.

I saw him unload a few bags. He struggled a bit and tried to carry everything, but finally he gave up and left one bag on the ground beside his car.

As he walked past my counter, i started to ask him if he needed any help with his bags. Mind you, it's a motel and we don't have porters so I was just being nice. I pointed at his bag outside and started to speak. I got as far as the word "Sir" when he cut me off and said "don't touch my bag!" Well alright then, I wasn't in a particular hurry to anyway.

I had other things to do, so I forgot about this until a few hours later. When I came back, I realised that his bag was still there. He'd forgotten about it.

Well, he said not to touch it, didn't he? Not my problem then. To make matters worse, it rained for a bit that night. Not a heavy downpour, just a bit of a drizzle for a few hours. But that was enough to drench the bag.

When the guy came out for breakfast next morning, he didn't even realise he'd forgotten his bags. I was handing over my shift and my colleague was asking me about the bag outside. The man saw my colleague pointing and his eyes widened in between bites of cereal. "THAT'S MY BAG!" he roared as he ran out.

When he came back in, dragging a bag that was thoroughly drenched, he started yelling at my colleague and me. He's never seen such irresponsible staff, he's gonna complain, etc etc.

I muster up the sweetest smile I could and said "Oh I'm so sorry sir. You told me specifically not to touch it last night, so I did my best to keep an eye on it for you."

I had a really enjoyable drive home that day.