25 Times Petty Revenge Was So Well-Planned, It Became Legendary

Revenge is a dish best served cold, but sometimes, it's the small, petty acts that bring the most satisfaction. When someone on Reddit asked, “What’s a petty revenge you’re gladly proud of?”, the responses poured in. From creative paybacks to subtle acts of defiance, these stories highlight how people find joy in the smallest victories. Here are some of the most entertaining and proudly petty tales shared by Reddit users.

#1

Image source: Glittering-Score-340, Yan Krukau/Pexels (not the actual photo) I worked Comcast technical support. I had a customer that was so rude and nasty to me over the phone I spent the next 8 hours of my 10 hour shift constantly resetting his modem and cable boxes. It felt so good.

#2

Image source: kebaros, Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto/Pexels (not the actual photo) When I was under age (15), we were allowed to sit in the legion and drink cheap cans of tenants and play our cds quietly. We kept out of trouble on the streets and the legion got an uplift on the bar takings so win win. There was an old guy on the committee who didn’t like this arrangement and kept knocking the music off. This gentleman had a few gnomes in his garden, he was very proud so one evening I stole one of his gnomes and took it on holiday…..and every subsequent holiday since sending him a picture of his gnome in front of a beach / Grand Canyon / Eiffel Tower etc. It was a pain to take a camera on a lads holiday and take pictures of a gnome but it became tradition. From what I heard, the guy was pissed at first but ended up finding the pictures hilarious and looked forward to them, he started keeping an album of them. The gentleman has died now but what started out as a petty revenge act turned into something I never imagined, I returned the gnome for him to say his goodbye and now at the age of 43 I only have my kids for company on holidays. I miss that gnome.

#3

Image source: ThorinsBeard5497, Tranmautritam/Pexels (not the actual photo) Built a FB page for my job since they desperately needed one. However, I did it under my personal FB account. Several years later I quit following a long history of abuse and toxicity. I still owned their (very active) FB page so I deleted it.

#4

Image source: Icy-Celery2023, Michael Burrows/Pexels (not the actual photo) When I was 19 my then girlfriend sent a tape of her cheating on me with an acquaintance. I was devestated so I sent that video to her parents. She wasn't allowed to leave the house after that lol.

#5

Image source: covalentcookies, Proxyclick Visitor Management System/Pexels (not the actual photo) Went to give a guy a 10% raise. He said that’s what you give a janitor. I told him great idea, so I rescinded the raise and walked over to the janitor and gave him the $ increase the other employee was set to receive ($10,000) annually.

#6

Image source: FranzAllspring, Ron Lach/Pexels (not the actual photo) Stayed in an AirBnB in Lausanne for 3 months and when I got there it was absolutely filthy. Rotting bananas in the fridge, bins not emptied, layer of dust all over the place. The agreement I had signed beforehand said to "leave the apartment as clean as it was when you arrived" so I went out of my way to stop cleaning the place two weeks before I departed, I made sure to fill up the bins and I even bought bananas to leave behind in the fridge. When the guy gave me a bad rating I replied with before and after pics and wrote that I had merely fulfilled the agreement.

#7

Image source: oam1989, Max Fischer/Pexels (not the actual photo) Back in high school, I was around 14 and sat very close to the classroom door. One day, someone knocked, and I opened it without thinking. The art teacher got mad and told me not to do it again because she didn't give me permission to open the door, asking if I thought I was the doorman. I was shocked because I didn't think it was a big deal. Thirty minutes later, there was some knocking again. I waited for the teacher to tell me something, and she did—she told me to open the door. I simply replied, "I'm not a doorman; come and open the door yourself." She sent me to the principal to get a reprimand, but I didn't get any.

#8

Image source: forgetmenot2463, Engin Akyurt/Pexels (not the actual photo) My boss kept leaving his favorite coffee mug in the break room sink, despite a sign asking staff not to do so, for the housekeeping staff to wash. I was friends with the housekeepers and resented this. So I hid his coffee mug in the back of a cabinet in the mail room and then pretended to help him look for it. It stayed there for years.

#9

Image source: arkofjoy, Chloe/Pexels (not the actual photo) Playing the long game. I was "the weird kid" in high school. Bullied, threatened and pretty much a social outcast. Fast forward to getting sent pictures of my 30th high school reunion. I did not attend. Everyone was hugely overweight. I am still very fit. Most of them were balding, and I still have all my hair. Still happily married. Not rich, but doing alright. Living well is the best revenge.

#10

Image source: Lochan2468, Gül Işık/Pexels (not the actual photo) A former employer (a small cafe) fired me for something that never happened and since their business broke so many health and safety rules (no hot water, dirty conditions etc) I decided to anonymously report the business to the council and got them closed down for weeks so that they could resolve the issues before reopening. I didn’t get them closed down entirely sadly, but I love that I cost them so much money.

#11

Image source: SD_1501, Miriam Alonso/Pexels (not the actual photo) Was staying in a shared dorm at a hostel in my mid 20's. My roommates were a group of really inconsiderate people who'd talk at full volume at all odd hours even when it was very visible that I was sleeping. The morning I had to leave was immediately after a night on which they'd been partying and went to bed late. I set an alarm on my phone for 6am, with the most annoying tone I could find, locked it inside my locker in our room and went to an external bathroom for a nice long shower at 5:55am. 45 mins that thing rang at full volume in my locker before I returned, woke everyone up. I just had to apologize for "forgetting" to turn it off.

#12

A girl screamed at me in a public transport, truly for nothing - like some minor inconveneince. I was pregnant at a time, so it bothered me more than it would otherwise. We took a few stops in the same train, after which I had to change the line, so I exit but continue waiting on that stop. As it happens, the girl sits right next to the window that I am very close to from the outside, so I decide to play a game, just for the shits and giggles: I take out my phone and pretend to take a close-up of her face while she is staring at me. I was always told that I have this face of a mob wife or a resting b***h / evil queen face, so it didn't surprise me to see this pure horror on her face while I was "taking her photo". She starts to scream at me and stands up to either leave the train and beat me up, or to go sit somewhere else, but the veichle starts moving and I just smile and wave at her casually ? Of course I didn't take a photo, nor would I ever take a serious revenge on someone, but the fact that she was probably worried for a day pleased me. Never make a pregnant lady mad. Image source: Dosed123

#13

Image source: lifesyndromes, Ibrahim Plastic Industry ( IPI )/Pexels (not the actual photo) When my ex boyfriend and I broke up, he moved out and packed everything that was his. I later realised that he had taken all of my Tupperware lids and just left the containers. As annoying as it was to be left with lidless containers, I was in awe.

#14

Image source: VolcanicDoorway, Darya Sannikova/Pexels (not the actual photo) Lived in a four plex many moons ago, and there was a guy who always let his dog s**t on the parking strip right outside my window. I would ask him to bag it, and he would ignore and go along his merry way. This went on for months. Every day around 5. Finally I could take it no longer. I left a plastic grocery bag by the door, and waited for walk time. Once I saw him and his giant dog approaching, I grabbed the bag and lurked at the corner of the building until the dog finished his business. I quietly sneaked around the corner, and quickly grabbed the dog poo (with the bag, duh) and held onto it through the bag so the bag would stay open. I hurried up until I was an arms length behind the man and said "here, I think you dropped this", moving my arm towards him. He didn't look down until I had nearly handed it to him, and he was reaching for it already. He grabbed that poop and I walked quickly back to my place. He said nothing and walked away holding the poop. It felt soooo good. .

#15

I secretly leased an apartment, hired movers, and then packed everything I owned in about an hour and moved out of my emotionally and physically abusive b***h of a girlfriend's house while she was at work without her having any clue that I had been planning it for months. Let her come home to a house with half the stuff gone and no trace of me having ever lived there. Image source: Mr_Candlestick

#16

Image source: mustbethedragon, Mikhail Nilov/Pexels (not the actual photo) I was a teller at a credit union years ago. A customer came in and started barking orders, acting as though I was her assistant rather than just someone to take deposits. The whole time she name-dropped the credit union board members, the CEO in particular. I just kept my head down and took care of her transaction. As I finished, I told her I could tell the CEO she said hi if she wanted. She smirked and said, "Oh, you know him, do you?" I smiled and said, "Yes, I'll see him at dinner tonight. I'm dating his son." She blanched, grabbed her stuff, and darted out the door. As I suspected, the CEO didn't even know who she was until I explained who the deposits were for.

#17

Image source: Chimerain, cottonbro studio/Pexels (not the actual photo) My ex (who cheated on me) loved a show on Amazon Prime that I never watched; after we broke up, I saw him post about having watched the penultimate episode and being excited for the finale, and I realized he was still secretly using my account... I promptly cancelled it, because I never really used it anyway. Sorry, a-hole.

#18

Image source: ClydePincusp, Matheus Bertelli/Pexels (not the actual photo) I signed an a*****e neighbor up for Scientology literature. Then, I ordered a gay magazine under her husband's name to her neighbor's house.

#19

Image source: PewpyDewpdyPantz, Anthony/Pexels (not the actual photo) Years ago I lived in a six plex with my ex. There were three people (one man and two women) who recently moved in above us who all worked in the restaurant industry. Almost every weeknight they’d come home at 2:00am and proceed to BLAST their TV which was located above our bedroom. One night I finally had enough and went upstairs to knock on their door. The man answers and I proceed to ask him why his TV is so loud. He then informs me that it’s probably the SUBWOOFER. I ask him if he could turn it down and he responds with something along the lines of, “Well, after a long shift we all like to wind down and watch a movie. Turning off the subwoofer would decrease the quality of the experience.” I asked if he was serious and he just stared at me blankly. So I went back downstairs and informed my then gf of what happened and we devised a plan. All she had to do was take my dog to the office with her the next day. Little did the neighbours know that I had a full DJ setup ready to go with two KRK Rockit 5 monitors. I woke up at 5:00am to take my dog out for his walk and get ready for work. I then proceeded to make a playlist full of the most annoying songs I knew and put them on a constant loop. Songs like Hamsterdance, Friday by Rebecca Black, Cotton Eyed Joe, Crazy Frog etc. I set everything up so all my gf had to do was hit play on her way out at 8:00am, which she did. Never had to deal with the subwoofer again.

#20

Image source: anon When I was 7, my brother tried to play that age old prank on me where he offered me a soda that he had previously shaken up. Somehow, I felt that something was off and instantly guessed the real reason he was offering me that soda. Ah, intuition. I accepted the soda and, when he wasn’t looking, did the ole switcharoo with his soda and mine. I drank from my new soda and watched him open the tampered one. Mwahahahaha.

#21

Image source: SnortingSawDust, Ray Piedra/Pexels (not the actual photo) I stained my wife’s brand new white tennis shoes one time. When I woke up, I found she had taken one shoe lace from every pair of shoes I own and frozen them in a block of ice..

#22

Image source: Profanity_party7, Dianne/Pexels (not the actual photo) Not something I did but something I witnessed. Good friend of mine divorced her husband, after she kicked him out of the house, he came back one random night and dug up the all plants in her garden and took them with him. It was so labor intensive and petty that she wasn’t even mad. She just laughed and said she was so impressed she’d almost take him back if he’d put THAT amount of work into the marriage in the first place.

#23

I work as a postman, and when I’ve finished delivering I have to take packages for people who weren’t home to the post office to hand in for collection. They’re small, local post office shops so I have to go in and take it to the counter with the public. I went in once and went to the side of the counter to wait until they’d finished serving someone and then they get the machine I can scan to drop things off. It takes about ten seconds, and they can then go back to serving customers while I check them in. This one woman was incensed that I’d ‘pushed in’ and even as the staff member was trying to explain it would just take a second and she’d be right with her, she loudly made a scene and insisted that she be served first, and that I had no right to push into the line in front of her. Also mentioned she was double parked and would get a ticket if she took too long. (Also f**k you if you do this. Park somewhere else and walk). The staff member shrugged at me and apologised and went to serve the woman. The thing is, as it turned out the woman was coming to collect a package that I was dropping off. I heard her give the name and address and realised that I was holding it in my hands, but I allowed the staff member to go searching for it. She couldn’t find it of course, and it was actually earlier than the time I’d written for collection anyway, but the woman insisted she needed it today. I let this go on for a good ten minutes before saying ‘oh, what was that name again, I think I have it here’. The staff member and I knew each other, she knew exactly what I’d done, and she was FINE with it. Woman stormed out after that, then a minute or so later stuck her head back in and said she had a ticket and that we were going to have to pay it for it because it was our fault. Yeah, we didn’t pay for that ticket. Image source: Anzai

#24

Image source: -Lara-Love-, fauxels/Pexels (not the actual photo) I had a supervisor once who repeatedly made comments towards me that made me feel uncomfortable. DMing me saying I'm beautiful and wanting to take pictures of me all the while in work meetings. Eventually I told a colleague and found out I wasn't the only one, he'd been saying the same thing to multiple women at the company. We did more digging and found out that he had a history of this behaviour even at previous companies. We went to HR and he got let go. Then I joined a new company and a month later he joined too. I found out that in between those jobs he'd harassed a receptionist to the point she openly cried and quit her job. So when I saw his name pop up I went straight to my current HR and told her what I'd experienced. He was immediately let go before he could repeat that behaviour. From then on I've made it a personal mission to tell every woman in my industry about this guy. F**k him.

#25

Image source: DismalTree4161, Pixabay/Pexels (not the actual photo) Hotel I used to work at had a room that permanently smelled weird because a previous longterm occupant had simultaneously operated both a candle business and a puppy mill. General policy was not to put anyone in that room unless it was the only room available (and that time of the year, it wasn't). People who were jerks when I checked them in and only there for a night or two... got put in that room.