One of our offspring does a couple of shifts of cleaning at the hospital each week to help with university expenses and to fund their Uber Eats addiction.
We were alerted to an ethical quandary last week on the family chat.
Actually the conundrum was not so much moral – clearly it was unwanted if it was in the rubbish – but rather whether it was safe to eat. Once it was established that there was nothing else yucky in the bin – in spite of being in a lab area, it was just bits of paper – the general consensus was that it was probably fine, although no one was willing to take responsibility for the decision if there was a poor outcome. It was strictly caveat emptor, or whatever the equivalent was for eating something at your own risk (et comedens caveat, according to Google translate). Or in popular parlance:
To which the response was:
In my youth we used to say “Nothing ventured, nothing lost” but in this case, it’s been several days now with zero mortality so it seems to have been a safe move.
The question that remains to be answered, though, is “Why?” The room was otherwise empty, the previous occupant having just moved out. Was it an unwanted farewell gift? Were they a chocolate snob, or on a diet? Or was it something more personal? “Twenty years giving my all to the hospital, and this is the thanks I get! Damn them all to hell! This is what I think of their stupid gift!” Whilst throwing the mass produced, harmless but unwanted confectionary angrily into the rubbish bin. I guess we’ll never know.