# Is it immoral to leave the stump behind?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 5, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756 "2005-08-05T18:57:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/1 "2005-08-05T18:57:22Z")
Every now and then there will be a catered meeting in the office, and there will be leftover breakfast-type foods behind. Bagels, lemon cake, pastries.
And muffins.
These all go into the break room where anyone who wants one can have one. I have been know, on occasion, to make off with just a muffin top, leaving the stump behind. And I’m not the only one who does it. Hey, it’s the best part.
But a few times I went into the break room while a few of my coworkers went in. They would see a decapitated muffin and shriek “Oh my god! That’s horrible! Who would do such a thing? Why can’t they just eat the whole muffin? That’s disgusting!” They were not joking. They were truly mortified. I ended up agreeing with them, as if they found out it was me, they’d have lynched me on the spot.
So I submit this for debate: Is it moral to leave the stumps behind?
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/2 "2005-08-05T19:02:05Z")
You probably should have taken the whole muffin and threw away the stump.
Who do you think should eat the leftover stump or who wants to look at it?
Kind of like going up to a table with slices of cake, licking the frosting off one, and putting it back on the table.
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### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/3 "2005-08-05T19:04:29Z")
> [@tdn](#):
>
> So I submit this for debate: Is it moral to leave the stumps behind?
No. Take the whole thing and throw the stump away if you don’t want it. Who do you think is going to eat the stump anyway after your filthy hands have been all over it? :eek: Yuck. _shudder_
🙂
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/4 "2005-08-05T19:09:06Z")
> [@Hampshire](#):
>
> Kind of like going up to a table with slices of cake, licking the frosting off one, and putting it back on the table.
Your point being? 😉
When I take the top, I just twist it off. I never touch the stump. Of course, other people have no way of knowing that.
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### Author:  [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/5 "2005-08-05T19:33:41Z")
Haven’t you seen the Seinfeld in which the homeless shelter is offended because they would only receive the stumps of the muffins, not the good part?
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/6 "2005-08-05T19:37:47Z")
I can’t see any good reason to leave the stump. Yopu’re basically just leaving your garbage for someone else to clean up. It’s not like anyone else wants to eat it.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/7 "2005-08-05T19:41:38Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#):
>
> I can’t see any good reason to leave the stump. Yopu’re basically just leaving your garbage for someone else to clean up. It’s not like anyone else wants to eat it.
You’re probably right, although every now and then I’ve taken the stump that someone else has left behind. And once or twice people have taken my stump.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/8 "2005-08-05T19:44:30Z")
> [@Ravenman](#):
>
> Haven’t you seen the Seinfeld in which the homeless shelter is offended because they would only receive the stumps of the muffins, not the good part?
Where do you think I got the idea in the first place?
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/9 "2005-08-05T19:53:05Z")
Do you take a stump if you can take a whole muffin or do you only do it when the stumps are all that’s left?
Maybe you could have a separate container for stumps. You should at least remove them from the main basket. Stumps are really just leftovers.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/10 "2005-08-05T19:56:30Z")
Just take the whole damn muffin and throw away what you don’t eat.
I think this is now Reason #4,317 in my list of **Why I Don’t Work In An Office**.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/11 "2005-08-05T20:05:44Z")
Now, now, he’s not talking etiquette, he’s talking about _morality_. So, let’s see:
You’re not wasting food, but leaving some for other people which, you have mentioned take the stumps from time to time. So, you’re not wasting good food.
Plus, you’re sharing.
You’re also exercising self-control and not engaging in gluttony by taking & eating more than your fair share, or more than you need.
Since we, as thoughtful members of the SDMB, presume you’re washing your hands before handling food, yours or otherwise, the sanitation issue really doesn’t count, does it? Besides, it’s not like he’s pulling the top off, which requires hand-to-muffin contact, then dropping the top back in the box so he can eat the stump. The muffins have those paper things around the stumps.
I think you’re exhibiting several desirable moral values, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/12 "2005-08-05T20:08:05Z")
This is one of those cases of logic vs. cooties.
If I might make a request, make a little sign out of a piece of paper that says, “Twisted off top, bottom not touched” and leave it with the stump. I would be interested if you can unlearn people of their irrational fears or if cooties is incurable.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/13 "2005-08-05T20:08:20Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> …and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
This is rapidly becoming my favorite phrase for a post-ender. 😃
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/14 "2005-08-05T20:11:02Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#):
>
> Do you take a stump if you can take a whole muffin or do you only do it when the stumps are all that’s left?
I always take the top when one is available. Stumps are for times of desperation.
I don’t consider leaving some for others to be immoral or unsanitary, but perhaps because so many people have an ick factor over it, I should just go ahead and waste the stump. It’s an office politics thing.
I’m really surprised how much ick factor there is.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/15 "2005-08-05T20:19:59Z")
:dubious:
I realize I’m in GD, here, which isn’t my normal stomping grounds, but since when did office politics have anything to do with morality?
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### Author:  [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/16 "2005-08-05T20:23:40Z")
> [@Snowboarder Bo](#):
>
> I think this is now Reason #4,317 in my list of **Why I Don’t Work In An Office**.
You are going to have to start maintaining seperate lists. In my office, we commonly get “muffin tops” for breakfast meetings. You only have 4,316 reasons not to work here!
Re the OP: I don’t see why you are leaving the stump, either. It’s just trash, and you should discard it. However, it’s certainly nothing to get worked up about. If they saw an empty styrofoam coffee cup on the table would they have a similar reaction? Seems silly to me.
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### Author:  [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/17 "2005-08-05T20:32:39Z")
I am still trying to understand this concept of not wanting to eat an entire muffin. How big are these things anyway?
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### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/18 "2005-08-05T20:38:20Z")
Never eat a muffin stump bigger than your head.
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### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/19 "2005-08-05T20:49:48Z")
> [@Manduck](#):
>
> I am still trying to understand this concept of not wanting to eat an entire muffin.
I don’t either. I only like muffins with fruit in them; why would I want to give up all the blueberries or whatever that are in the stump?
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2005, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-immoral-to-leave-the-stump-behind/315756/20 "2005-08-05T21:02:48Z")
> [@Debaser](#):
>
> Re the OP: I don’t see why you are leaving the stump, either. It’s just trash, and you should discard it.
Hold on a second–What if I had used a knife and I cut it in half from the top down? Essentially leaving half a top and half a stump behind? Would the half I left there be considered trash? What if I took one slice of birthday cake? Would the rest of the cake I left behind be considered trash as well?
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