Thousands of strangers around the world cross paths every day. Usually, though, everyone’s going about their business and it doesn’t lead to somewhat significant encounters. Even in the times of pandemic, when people are mostly staying home, grocery shopping has become one of those rare luxuries to be among others browsing through the aisles.

But on some occasions, running into strangers can turn sour. At least this is what happened to one Reddit user who was approached in a grocery store line while picking up a pack of cigarettes for their grandpa. “The guy behind me in line, middle-aged dude, said, ‘you’re so young, you shouldn’t be smoking.’”

Convinced that this was none of the guy’s business, and since he repeated the schooling again, the redditor clapped back. Read the incident in full right below that divided people online, who strived to answer the key question: “AITA for telling a guy behind me in the grocery store line to mind his friggin business?” Share what you think in the comments!

This person shared an incident they had while grocery shopping where they were told they shouldn’t smoke by a random stranger

To find out more about the incident, Bored Panda reached out to the person who snapped at a stranger for being told they shouldn’t smoke. “I was initially annoyed because I don’t like it when strangers make small talk with me at the grocery store,” the author of “AITA for telling a guy behind me in the grocery store line to mind his friggin business?”, who preferred staying anonymous, explained.

It turns out, the person had bought cigarettes for their grandpa before, but this was the only time someone had ever commented on them. “I’ve gotten a couple dirty looks, but I just ignore those.”

At this point, the person who was there to pick up cigarettes for their grandpa had enough and clapped back

When asked whether they think it was the right reaction, the person clarified, “I don’t think I was a jerk, I just wasn’t as nice as I could have been. I think to be a jerk, you have to do something a little worse than that.”

In the end, the person said that they’d probably do the same if a stranger tried to school them. “I would tell them to shut up, as demonstrated by my post.”

The people were divided over whether the author of the post was a jerk for cursing at a stranger or not

In our hectic lives, we are often confronted with strangers who do (or say) something totally discomforting, or plain annoying. It’s incredible to think how much our mood depends on such seemingly meaningless encounters, and how fast our day can turn from hero to zero in a moment.

It’s no secret that when we get frustrated, most of the time, we jump to dark conclusions quickly. We may even picture ourselves as a target of mockery and harm, and it may make our blood boil. But sometimes an adequate complaint emerges from the assumption we carry in our heads before we say something back to the frustrating stranger.

What if we believe that the irritating person is not deliberately trying to irritate us, and doesn’t have an evil plan to prevent us from feeling happy? What if the stranger wasn’t even thinking about us at all, and just uttered something that was on the tip of their tongue?

This assumption may help you to calm your nerves down and make sure the encounter you have doesn’t escalate into an inadequate situation. After all, it’s yourself whom you should care about, and whatever random strangers the world may bring us, we should all just try to be a little more sure of ourselves.

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