Ever heard that saying, “Revenge is a dish best served cold”? Well, sometimes it’s served with a side of spaghetti Bolognese. In the wild world of academia, shortcuts can lead to epic fails, and when procrastination meets plagiarism, things get heated really fast.
When you swipe someone’s work without thinking, don’t be surprised if karma spices up your assignment with a little culinary chaos and a big old dose of petty revenge. One student found that out the hard way when she stole her friend’s report entirely, trying to pass it as her own, but was caught red-handed.
More info: Reddit
Procrastination can drive students to make questionable choices, especially when desperation leads to plagiarism
Image credits: Polina Tankilevitch / Pexels (not the actual photo)
One student learned this the hard way when her panic drove her to steal a friend’s report just days before the deadline
Image credits: RDNE Stock project / Pexels (not the actual photo)
The student asked her colleague to see their report as an example, but ended up stealing the entire thing, which made the colleague decide to take petty revenge
Image credits: Yan Krukau / Pexels (not the actual photo)
When the student sent her colleague the report back to ask for proofreading, they replaced commonly used words with vulgarities and added a pasta recipe and Harry Potter references
Image credits: Drazen Zigic / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Image credits: low_myope
The student faced expulsion from university after turning in the report containing vulgarities, football scores and recipes, without even reading it
The OP (original poster), a uni student, was crushing their physics report early so they could kick back and enjoy varsity week. They not only submitted the 2,500-word report well ahead of time but were ready to party while the rest of the group sweated over their last-minute work.
But then, disaster struck, in the form of a desperate classmate. Two days before the report was due, one of the group members, let’s call her Miss Procrastination, called the OP in a frenzy. She hadn’t even started her report, and she was absolutely panicking, pleading with the OP to send over their report so she could see “the structure”.
You’d think, red flag, right? But after a week of varsity fun, our storyteller was still riding the party wave, so they sent the whole report over, thinking, "What could go wrong?" Spoiler alert: everything!
The night before the submission deadline, Miss Procrastination called again. She was in need of a proofreader. Seems innocent enough, right? Wrong. When our unsuspecting friend opened the document, they found… wait for it… their entire report, copied and pasted, basically word-for-word. Miss Procrastination wasn’t looking for “inspiration.” She was straight-up stealing the whole thing. Who does that?
Now, the OP could’ve just confronted her, but why take the high road when you can get petty revenge? So, with the power of the “find and replace” function, the OP swapped out key experiment terms with not-so-scientific language. And by “not-so-scientific,” we mean vulgarities. Yep, that’s right—suddenly, instead of scientific jargon, this plagiarized report was littered with obscenities.
And that was just the warm-up. Next up: the methodology. Instead of outlining the steps of the experiment, the OP generously replaced it with a step-by-step recipe for spaghetti Bolognese. You can just picture the professor reading that and wondering why physics now involves simmering tomatoes and browning beef.
But wait, there’s more! The data table? Gone. Instead, the OP threw in some football box scores from that weekend’s games. Oh, and the references? Forget scholarly articles—Miss Procrastination’s report was now proudly citing the likes of Weasley, Dumbledore and Grindlewald.
Honestly, we’re surprised Voldemort didn’t get a mention. And to put the cherry on top of this masterpiece, the conclusion was turned into a full-blown confession of plagiarism. Bold move, right?
The OP sent off this monstrosity to Miss Procrastination and waited for the inevitable angry phone call. You’d think anyone submitting a report would, you know, read it first. But no, this report thief, in her infinite wisdom, submitted the report as-is.
Image credits: Drazen Zigic / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Three weeks later, the inevitable happened. Miss Procrastination called back, absolutely livid. Turns out she was called into a faculty meeting for academic misconduct. The kicker? She tried to throw the OP under the bus but, in the process, basically confessed to trying to plagiarize! You can’t make this stuff up.
Miss Procrastination didn’t just fail the module, she was on the verge of expulsion. And to add insult to injury, that legendary spaghetti Bolognese report now lives on in infamy, used by the university as a cautionary tale for future students. Yep, five years later, it’s still being shown to warn against the dangers of plagiarism.
To find out more about plagiarism in university settings, Bored Panda reached out to Eng. Liana Hancu, PhD, Professor at Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, for some comments. She told us that plagiarism happens more frequently than people realize, especially with the widespread availability of online resources, but experienced educators can often sense when the work feels unoriginal.
We asked Professor Hancu to describe some key indicators that a student might have copied from a peer, and for the best way to identify these cases. She explained that notable shifts in writing tone, inconsistencies in detail or structure, and sections that don't align with a student’s typical abilities are clear warning signs. Plus, being familiar with each student's normal writing can make it easier to notice when something seems off.
We wanted to know what actions Professor Hancu would take if she received a plagiarized report containing odd or irrelevant content, like a recipe or sports scores. She told us that seeing that kind of unrelated material in an academic paper is definitely unusual.
“I’d be quite surprised to see such content in an academic report, to say the least! My first step would be to meet with the student to determine if it was a mistake or intentional. If I suspected it was related to an internal group conflict, I’d speak to the involved parties and review the context, then follow up with appropriate measures based on the findings,” Hancu explained.
We wanted to know the best way for an educator to deal with a student who retaliates against a peer for plagiarism by altering their report with false content. Professor Hancu explained that while anger over being plagiarized is understandable, sabotaging someone else's work is not an acceptable response.
“The best course of action for the plagiarized student is to report the issue to a professor or academic committee. Tampering, even in retaliation, could lead to consequences for both parties, and it muddies the waters of who is in the right,” Hancu suggested.
What did you think of this story? Is the poster a jerk for messing with their colleague’s stolen report or did she totally deserve it? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
People in the comments say the colleague is not a jerk for messing with the student’s report after she had the audacity to steal it and ask for proofreading
