It’s been said that you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Even if the item isn’t anything you wanted or have any use for, it’s still the polite thing to do to accept it graciously. But what if you discover that gift is a fake?

This was the exact situation facing a woman whose boyfriend bought her a Chanel bag. She was thrilled at first, then her best friend took a closer look and said it wasn’t real. The woman asked her boyfriend where he bought it, and that’s when the truth came out.

More info: Reddit

It’s not polite to look a gift horse in the mouth, but this woman’s boyfriend made that difficult not to

Image credits: anonymous

Woman was thrilled when boyfriend said he’d treat her to a special gift for a milestone occasion

Image credits: anonymous

Guy proceeded to gift her a Chanel bag, exactly what she asked for, but her best friend had her doubts about its authenticity

Image credits: anonymous

The woman then turned to the web to get their opinions on the matter and was overjoyed with the input

Image credits: Betül Yıldız / Flickr (not the actual photo)

Readers in the comments offered the woman some practical ways to deal with the situation but were divided on whether the boyfriend knew or not

Image credits: Timur Weber / Pexels (not the actual photo)

After reading all the comments, she decided to ask her boyfriend where he got the bag from after all

Image credits: Mizuno K / Pexels (not the actual photo)

The boyfriend admitted to her that he’d got the bag from Poshmark on the advice of his mother, since he didn’t know much about high-end bag shopping

Image credits: Anna Nekrashevich / Pexels (not the actual photo)

Things then turned into a full-blown gender war, with the boyfriend accusing his girlfriend of being influenced by social media

Image credits: senivpetro / Freepik (not the actual photo)

The bogus bag incident prompted much drama between the couple, and had the woman wondering how much sway his mom had had in his purchasing decision

Image credits: anonymous

The situation concluded with the girlfriend saying that the vibe has been off between the couple, but that the incident taught her a lot about her boyfriend and their relationship

OP begins her story by telling the community that she’s wondering whether or not her boyfriend bought her a fake Chanel bag. She prefaces by saying she doesn’t mind and that she appreciates the gesture, before adding that her love language is not receiving gifts, but rather words and time.

She goes on to explain that a milestone occasion was coming up for her and that her boyfriend asked her what she’d really want, if she had enough disposable income. She immediately told him she’d love a Chanel bag.

When the bag arrived, OP actually wept tears of joy because here was evidence that men actually listen. But she then goes on to say that, upon closer inspection of the bag with her best friend, they speculated that it might not be the real deal. 

OP tells the readers that she didn’t mind that it was fake and would not ask her boyfriend about it, because she just appreciated the gesture, but asked the community for their opinions on the matter.

In an update to her original post, OP says that, long story short, she ended up asking her boyfriend where he bought the bag, and he sheepishly replied Poshmark (a social marketplace much like eBay) which he chose on the advice of his mother. When OP suggested to him that resellers aren’t known for selling the authentic item, he got snippy with her.

OP then admits she messed up by telling him that, in future, that it would be fine if he gave her cash or a gift card for the same amount. At first, he agreed, but 10 minutes later questioned her about it. She assured him that he was very thoughtful, but that she’d done her research, and the bag was a bad fake.

Things then turned into a full-blown gender war, with OP’s boyfriend accusing her of being influenced by social media. Confused where this attitude was coming from, OP asked him whether or not she was worthy of a nice purse to which he responded by asking her what’s wrong with a fake one. That’s when OP got him to admit that he knew it wasn’t genuine when he bought it.

After more arguing and OP wondering how much sway his mother had had in influencing his purchase decision, she told the readers that the vibe has been off between her and her boyfriend, but that the experience had taught her a lot about both him and their relationship.

Image credits: Philipp Stahlmann / Freepik (not the actual photo)

In her article for The Guardian, Alice Sherwood writes that, according to some estimates, the trade in fake products is worth $600bn per year and as many as 10% of all branded goods sold may be counterfeit. 

Sales of luxury goods have soared in recent decades, but fakes have grown even faster: one estimate suggests that counterfeits have increased by 10,000% in two decades.

Counterfeiting has gained such prominence that there’s a whole museum dedicated to it in France, the Musée de la Contrefaçon, where fakes are displayed adjacent to the genuine article for direct comparison. 

But counterfeiting is only half the story here. What about the boyfriend’s blatant attempt at deception?

In his article for Psychology Today, Padraic Gibson, D.Psych, writes that, in prehistoric eras, where physical survival was the primary objective, the ability to deceive a predator or a rival could mean the difference between life and death. According to Gibson, this aspect of lying as a survival tool is widely recognized in evolutionary biology and is essential in the process of finding a mate and competition for resources, even to this day. It’s kind of understandable then that the boyfriend would give in to this primal instinct and think he’d get away with it.

A critical study in the British Journal of Social Psychology (2024) found that manipulating and lying others, no matter the motivation, leads to a decrease in self-esteem and an increase in negative emotions for the person telling the lie.

Sebastian Ocklenburg’s article, reveals 5 interesting facts about the nature of deception. Some of the most interesting include that just remembering a lie is enough to lower self-esteem and reduce positive emotions, people lie more about themselves than about others and lying specifically lowers self-esteem on days a lie is told.  

So, it would seem OP’s boyfriend got twice the punishment for trying to gift her the knock-off Chanel bag. Perhaps with the right apology he can smooth things over, but we think it’s safe to say he learned a high-end lesson.

What would you have done if you were in OP’s shoes? Do you think the boyfriend deserves a second chance? Let us know your opinion in the comments!

In the comments, readers concluded that the bogus bad incident was the real gift, since it showed her so much about her boyfriend and their relationship

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