# No fortune in cookie = bad luck? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 22, 2023, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393 "2023-07-22T17:52:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![a6ka97](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@a6ka97](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a6ka97)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/1 "2023-07-22T17:52:06Z")
I know there is superstitions out there, break a mirror = 7 years bad luck, pick up a penny if it has tails showing is bad luck (turn it over for the next person), don’t read your fortune cookie fortune until everybody is done eating or else your fortune will not come true, etc… Went out for Chinese for lunch and got a fortune cookie. No fortune in it. What does this mean? Good luck? Bad luck? Food poisoning? Some other result? ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/2 "2023-07-22T17:56:59Z")
Your fate is in Your hands! ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/3 "2023-07-22T18:10:14Z")
Your life from now on will be eventless and boring. No ups or downs. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/4 "2023-07-22T18:14:20Z")
This happened to my wife. Next time we ate there, we asked the owner what no fortune meant. His answer: “No news is good news?” ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/5 "2023-07-22T18:39:30Z")
How unfortunate. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/6 "2023-07-22T21:09:26Z")
The fortune cookie factory ran out of paper slips? Someone else got two? If you suddenly quit posting here, should we worry? ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/7 "2023-07-22T21:12:39Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Someone else got two? Could be. I’ve gotten more than one fortune in one cookie more than once. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/8 "2023-07-22T21:17:07Z")
That would explain why there is so much bad out there, because it is rare to get an actual _fortune_ cookie with your meal any more. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/9 "2023-07-22T21:18:18Z")
Yeah, they’re more like _proverb_ cookies. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/10 "2023-07-22T21:23:04Z")
Back in the day I ate a lot of those. Can’t say I ever found a real fortune in one; no cache of gold doubloons, no bitcoin wallet passwords, nothing. Not even a reliable tip on the 3rd race at Aqueduct. Pikers. ---
**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/11 "2023-07-22T21:51:31Z")
I’ve never gotten a fortune cookie from a sit down Chinese restaurant. The only places I’ve gotten them are from Panda Express and our local, decades before predecessor, Patti’s Chinese Kitchen. Both of which I consider Chinese-American, rather than “real” Chinese food. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/12 "2023-07-22T21:56:12Z")
Well, fortune cookies were “invented” in Los Angeles. Not really anything like trad Chinese food. Also, the original cookies had Bible verses, not fortunes, so, definitely _not_ traditional Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2023, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/13 "2023-07-22T21:59:50Z")
> [@Didi44](#): > > I’ve never gotten a fortune cookie from a sit down Chinese restaurant. I certainly have. Admittedly not recently, but they were all but mandatory at Chinese sit-down places when I was a kid up through college age in the 1960s-80s. I’ve not eaten real sit-down Chinese in about 15 years now, so I can’t say what current practice is where I’ve lived or traveled. I also question how much in the USA it’s possible to find a “real Chinese” restaurant as opposed to one selling “Americanized Chinese-ish” food. In some Chinese enclaves in some large cities maybe. Otherwise not so much. IMO/IME. ---
**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/14 "2023-07-23T00:45:00Z")
I live in Hawaii and because of our large, mainly Cantonese population we have authentic Chinese restaurants, though you may have to order off the Chinese only side of the menu to get the non Americanized/local version. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/15 "2023-07-23T01:04:28Z")
That’d do it. I grew up in SoCal, but at that time we had only a small Chinese population and their enclave was distant from where I was. The Japanese folks were far more numerous and widely distributed then. Of course SF had a huge Chinese enclave and still does. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/16 "2023-07-23T17:45:44Z")
Cookie fortunes from our local places are a dumb statement like “Hard work leads to rewards” on one side and a real estate agent advertisement on the other. Getting no fortune might be its own luck. ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/17 "2023-07-23T18:07:07Z")
Thinking positively, perhaps no fortune in your cookie means your future is entirely yours to conceive. Four of us went to a Chinese restaurant and we all got the same fortune. I don’t recall what it was, but it was a spooky thing to have happen. We figured the cookies must have come from some kind of discount cookie house where the machine got stuck or something. I once got one that said, “You will participate in karaoke.” Hasn’t happened yet. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/18 "2023-07-23T18:31:54Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > Four of us went to a Chinese restaurant and we all got the same fortune. I don’t recall what it was, but it was a spooky thing to have happen. We figured the cookies must have come from some kind of discount cookie house where the machine got stuck or something. Of course there was this event: > **[Lottery Winners Who Got Their Numbers from Fortune Cookies](https://www.lotterypros.com/lottopedia/lottery-winners-who-got-their-numbers-from-fortune-cookies/)** > > The idea of fortune cookies to pick lottery numbers isn’t as implausible as it might seem. Read on to find out about lottery winners who got their winning numbers from fortune cookies. The punchline being a particular cookie company printed the same “lucky numbers” on all cookies assembled on any one day. Which numbers happened to coincide with a most of the balls in a local lottery held later that week after the cookies had been sold. Which in turn resulted in lots of people winning at least something in that lottery, all of whom had based their lottery picks on their fortune cookie. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/19 "2023-07-24T01:49:28Z")
You’re …in bed. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393/20 "2023-07-24T02:15:27Z")
Don’t feel bad. It happens to lots of us as we get older. 😁 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fortune-in-cookie-bad-luck/987393.md?page=2)