Most of us wouldn’t hesitate to help our neighbours – within reason.
If your neighbour came to your house with a simple request, such as needing to retrieve something that had accidentally made its way into your garden or wanting to borrow a couple of teabags in a pinch, most of us would be happy to help.
Being neighbourly is part of living in a residential area, and while you don’t necessarily have to be best friends with the people living next door, it helps to at least be cordial. The same goes for respecting boundaries when it comes to making too much noise or deciding to use your washing machine in the early morning hours.
One man, however, has been left gobsmacked by the request his neighbours made to him recently. Instead of asking for help with something small, his neighbour came to his door and demanded access to his Wi-Fi – for free.
The neighbour claimed they had “forgotten” to pay their own Wi-Fi bill so theirs had been cut off, and they needed access to his instead. And when he politely declined, they decided to take revenge.
In a post on Reddit, the man said: “I had a neighbour knock on my door, asking if they could connect to my Wi-Fi claiming they ‘forgot’ to pay their bill, and their internet got cut off. I politely declined, explaining that I pay for a service enough to cover my needs and don’t want to risk security issues.”
He thought that would be the end of their discussion, but it turns out his neighbour has now taken revenge on him for refusing – by badmouthing him to the rest of their neighbourhood.
His neighbour has called him “cheap” and “selfish”, and is trying to turn members of their neighbourhood against him by claiming he “lacks a sense of community”.
He added: “They got upset and left, but I thought that was the end of it.
“Turns out, they’ve been bad-mouthing me to other neighbours, saying I’m selfish and lack a sense of community. A friendly neighbour told me they were calling me ‘cheap’ and claiming it wouldn’t cost me anything to help out.”
Commenters on the Reddit post largely had the man’s back. Many said that if his other neighbours believe that he’s “cheap” and unneighbourly, they should be the ones offering up their Wi-Fi for free.
One person said: “If anyone else comments on it to you, praise them for their generosity of offering to share their service with said neighbour.”
Another added: “Allowing access to your wifi router could set you up for fraud by a person who can hack into your network. Just say it’s for security reasons. If they have a problem with that, ask them if you can have a key to their house, because that is a similar request.”
A third stated: “Not your problem, and I wouldn’t share either. They need to pay their bill. This is a great lesson for them to keep track of when their bills are due.”
