We have all heard the horror stories about overbearing in-laws who have absolutely no concept of boundaries. Usually, it involves them dropping by unannounced or critiquing your housekeeping skills. But one bride-to-be on Reddit is dealing with a future mother-in-law who decided to escalate the drama from “annoying guest” to “straight-up jewel thief,” and the way the bride handled it is nothing short of legendary.
The Original Poster (OP) is a twenty-six-year-old woman who recently got engaged. While this should be a happy time, her fiancé’s mother is determined to be the rain on her parade. The couple is currently renovating their place, which means the mother-in-law (MIL) has a key. Instead of using it for emergencies, she uses it to snoop, interfere, and “help” clean up messes that probably didn’t exist until she arrived.
The situation went from bad to criminal when the OP came home from her martial arts class one afternoon. She always takes her engagement ring off before class and leaves it in a specific jewelry dish. When she got home, the dish was empty. Naturally, she asked the woman with the spare key what happened. The MIL admitted she took the ring to a jeweler to get it cleaned.
Let’s pause right here. Who takes someone else’s engagement ring out of their house without asking? That is not a favor. That is theft with a side of gaslighting. To make matters worse, when the OP asked which jeweler she took it to, the MIL looked smug and pretended she couldn’t remember. She dragged this game out for days, refusing to return the ring or say where it was.
The OP realized that getting angry would only give the MIL the satisfaction she was craving. So, she decided to fight fire with fire, or rather, with a little Brazilian magic. She told her MIL that she really hoped nothing happened to the jeweler because the ring was cursed. She spun a brilliant web of lies about her superstitious Brazilian grandmother performing a ritual on the ring that curses anyone who handles it other than the owner.
She really committed to the bit, too. She told a story about a burglar who stole her mother’s ring and was crushed by a pillar of cement on his way out of the house. It was ridiculous, it was petty, and it was exactly what the MIL needed to hear. The MIL looked uneasy, and like magic, the ring reappeared in the dish the very next day. It didn’t look any cleaner, confirming it never went to a jeweler; it was just being held hostage.
But the universe wasn’t done with the MIL yet. A week later, the OP received a hysterical, abusive phone call. The MIL had been in a minor car accident and was absolutely convinced it was the work of the “witch doctor” grandmother. She blamed the OP for cursing her.
The fiancé tried to calm his mother down, but the damage was done. He scolded the OP a bit, knowing his mother’s dramatic tendencies, but even he had to recognize the absurdity of the situation. Now the MIL is refusing to speak to the OP and slandering her to anyone who will listen, claiming she is utilizing dark arts to cause fender benders.
So is the OP the ahole? Absolutely not. NTA. If you don’t want to get cursed, don’t steal people’s jewelry. It is a pretty simple rule to live by. The MIL played a stupid game by taking the ring, and she won a stupid prize in the form of a placebo-effect car crash. The OP didn’t curse her; the MIL’s own guilty conscience did the heavy lifting. Maybe next time she sees a diamond ring sitting in a dish, she will keep her hands to herself.