AITA for expecting my brother to return double the things he stole.

A Reddit user, 25F, is facing a situation with her 19-year-old brother who continues to take from her supplies without asking and fails to repay her as promised.

Despite her limited income, she often contributes to groceries, but things have escalated over a simple purchase of 24 cans of cola when three people in the house, including her, were sick. Her brother took 10 cans in a day, leaving her frustrated when he didn’t repay or respect the situation.

After buying more cans, she told him that if he took more, he would owe her double. Her brother, upset, called her greedy and sent her texts all night. Was she wrong for expecting him to make it right? Read the full story below to find out what happened next!

‘ AITA for expecting my brother to return double the things he stole. ‘

Due to unfortunate circumstances both myself 25f and my brother 19m live at home still. I’m not here about that. Summing up my medical situation wouldn’t be worth it, but I can’t live on my own for various reasons. I get far less income than he does yet I generally contribute the groceries and stocking the fridge.

This leads to a lot of issues. Last week 3 people in the house came down with the flu, my brother isn’t one of them, our throats are extremely sore from coughing fits and such. On Wednesday I bought 24 cans of cola to keep in the fridge for the three of us who’re sick.

My brother proceeds to drink 10 in the first day and they’re all gone by Friday. He didn’t ask. He has a laissez-faire attitude towards it. Often he’ll take first then promise to ‘make it right’ after. Cans are trivial but it’s the circumstances around it that make it so insulting.

4 days later he still hasn’t ‘made it right’, so I buy more cans and make it clear to him that IF he takes more cans from this new stock he’ll owe me an entire 24 pack. He proceeds to blow up at how unfair that is. And calling me an arsehole and greedy. Texting me to until 4am about it..

I’d say I’m clearly bias here, but I can’t NOT be. The situation is simply pretty one sided. But he insists it’s me who’s wrong. TL;DR brother takes ~10 cans of coke without asking, promises afterwards to pay me back, hasn’t in 5 days, and I buy more and tell him if he takes more he owes me double. He is mad and calls me greedy.. Am I the Arsehole?

Let’s dive into the reactions from Reddit:

DragonCelica −  NTA. My brother proceeds to drink 10 in the first day. What in the ever-loving-f**k?! 10 cans of soda in a day?! Ah, to be young and have a bullet proof stomach. Still, that’s just greedy under any circumstance. It sounds like their needs to be a family discussion about distribution and rebalancing contributions.

Juniper-thereabout −  You need to get a little fridge in your room, and start lock in your stuff. You know how he behaves, so no reason to trust him. I don’t think it will help to expect anything from him as long as your parents are not willing to address stuff and put the foot down.

ScienceNotKids −  NTA. But who the heck drinks coke when they’re sick with a sore throat???

OwlUnique8712 −  Honestly he needs to start helping with grocery money weekly. You know he is not going to go out of his way to replace stuff. So he needs to pay his share before the shopping because he won’t replace anything. He’s old enough to help with the food bills.

Bold-Belle2 −  NTA. Perfectly reasonable boundary that honestly should have been made clear the first time around.

Kris82868 −  He should replace what he took. I don’t think the owes me double flies.

toosheeptheorist −  NTA – brother needs to start buying his own soft drinks, instead of taking what doesn’t belong to him, no matter what the living circumstances are.

Rooney_Tuesday −  Not the point of the post, but people are bias*ed*. They HAVE a bias. People are never bias.. NTA otherwise.

mrtnmnhntr −  INFO: Why are people drinking Coke if they’re sick???

Rageun −  NTA He should at the very least replace what he took. Going forward you need to have a talk and set expectations properly. If he doesn’t contribute he shouldn’t be taking almost half of something.

Do you think the Reddit user’s request for double the cans was fair, or was her brother right to feel upset about the situation? How would you handle a family member who repeatedly takes advantage of your generosity? Share your thoughts below!