This Post May Save Your Life

On the table: Box of donuts = OK!  Plate with a single cookie = NOT OK!  

Good advice, Jeremy.  How was the cookie?

I did not eat the cookie.  Truth be told, I don't even know what happened to it, as it was gone later in the day.  Here's the story:

So, I may have mentioned recently that I moved to a new office at work, and that my new location sucks right out loud.  It does have at least a couple perks, though.  It's right around the corner from the office basketball room.  I'll explain.  In my company's desperate efforts to behave as a younger, hipper, edgier company to work for, they have adopted some minor changes to add youth and whimsy to the workplace.  We have "lounges" with bean bag chairs around whiteboard-coated tables.  We have scrabble and chess boards mounted to walls in the hallways, so you can make a move as you walk by and pass the play on to the next random person who decides to have a go.  We have a former conference room which has a handful of Legos inside to play with (you're supposed to build things to stimulate your creativity).  And we have a former conference room which has a Nerf basketball hoop mounted to two of the walls, with a couple baskets with about 4 dozen Nerf basketballs inside.  You're supposed to...well...play Nerf basketball during work hours or something I guess.  Whatever...I just write stupid crap in a Blag during my break.  

Key words there being "stupid" and "crap."  

One of the advantages of the little lounges (even though I have yet to see anyone sitting in the bean bags) is that they provide a convenient location to distribute excess goodies.  Occasionally, a manager or supplier will bring in a box of donuts or a plate of cookies or something to entertain people during a meeting, and to prove that they are the best manager or supplier to work with.  It's somewhat shameless, but I'm not about to let a perfectly good meeting donut go to waste over some supplier technical issue.  (It's also very much not against company policy, so no problems there)  If there are donuts left over at the end of the meeting, the box can be placed on the table near the offices, so anyone who wants a donut can pick one up as they walk by.  It's a system that works quite well, since everyone knows that the donuts won't last long, so they're reasonably fresh and tasty.  Plus, if the donuts had been there the previous day, we would have seen them.  Box of donuts on the table are fair game and not a gamble.  

On the other hand, when you walk in first thing in the morning and you see a paper plate with a single cookie on the table, suspicions should arise.  Was this part of a larger number of cookies at some point?  Who brought them in, and why?  Is this just somebody's lunch from the previous day and they forgot they set down their dessert?  Would that make it stealing to take the cookie?  Is the cookie even fresh, or has is been sitting out all night?  This cookie is terrifying, and nobody will ever take it.  Until, you know...the cleaning crew takes the cookie and throws it right the heck out.  I'm assuming and probably hoping that's what happened to it.