The cutlet is a LIE.

There’s always something satisfying about finding a good deal, whether it be an all-you-can-drink beer and udon deal for nine bucks or a pub discount for going bald. Even the small savings can add up over time, and it just feels so rewarding you have a few extra bucks in your wallet thanks to your savvy spending.

Another well-known money saver is hitting up supermarkets at the end of the day, close to closing time. If you browse the ready-made food section, you can find bento boxed meals, sushi, fried foods, and more, marked down to a fraction of the price in order to entice shoppers to buy them up before they need to be thrown out.

While one shopper, Twitter-user @TakadaK5, was perusing the aisles at his local supermarket, he happened to spot what appeared to be a pair of  to be breaded cutlets with discount stickers on them. The one in the front was marked 20 percent off, and the one behind it a whole 50 percent off! In his excitement at finding some crispy fried goodness to munch on for half the original price, he reached out to grab the plastic container that was sitting towards the back when he jammed his fingers, as he explains below:

▼ “Wow, half off!!!! I thought reaching for the one in back and jamming my fingers. I’m so ashamed I could cry.”

Indeed, at first glance it looks like a package with a 50 percent off sticker on it… until you realize that it’s all just a trickery of reflection, and that poor @TakadaK5 was reaching in vain for a mirror image of the 20-percent-off cutlet, which was the one and only one that was actually on the shelf, since the 20-percent-off sticker, when reflected, looked like a 50-percent-off one.

His humorous yet completely honest mistake has gotten him a lot of attention on Twitter, with nearly 92,000 retweets and 140,000 likes since he posted it on June 5. Some of the comments include:

“What would your parents think if they saw this tweet…?”

“The pain of desire.”

“I’ve done something similar before too, it’s so embarrassing. All for one half-price rice ball…”

“Mirrors are cruel…”

“[Price of the reflected fried food] 580/2= 290 yen
[Price of the real fried food] 280-56(20%)= 224 yen
The fried food in front is cheaper than the reflected one.”

Cruel indeed. Perhaps the store staff can leave the fingerprints and smudges left by over-anxious bargain-hunters on the mirrors as a warning to not reach for the reflections!

Source: Twitter/@TakadaK5 via My Game News Flash
Featured image: Twitter/@TakadaK5