### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/1 "2006-09-27T11:06:28Z")
Sometimes people trying to be polite just crack me up. For example, you bring in some sort of snack to share with the office, and everyone descends upon the plate like pirhanas, until there’s only one item left. One. Left alone to get stale and be tossed out.
So, I gotta ask - would you take the last donut (or cookie or slice of pizza or whatever) in any of the following situations:
1. at work
2. at a relative’s place
3. at a friend’s place
4. at a social occasion
Personally, if I was reasonably sure everyone else had had their fill and I really wanted the item, I’d probably help myself. But I’d wait a fair amount of time to be certain some late-comer didn’t come wandering by.
At a relative’s, I might go so far as to call out “Anybody else want this last _\_??”
What I would \*not \* do is just leave half a donut. _Nobody_ wants half a donut unless the two of you are standing there and agree to split it. So take that entire last damned donut. Thank you.
Whaddaya think?
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/2 "2006-09-27T11:14:38Z")
1, 2, 3, 4. yes. Depending on the level of confidence I might make the old, tired joke (at least in Spanish) of asking “anybody want the shameful one?”
Yeah, the last one of anything, that’s staying there looking sad and unloved just because nobody dares take it, is referred to as _el de la vergüenza_
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### Author:  [@934spe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/934spe)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/3 "2006-09-27T12:28:35Z")
To go along with the OP question at hand, how many people cut the donut in half, but always go back for the second piece?.. WTF?..
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### Author:  [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/4 "2006-09-27T12:38:31Z")
I will take the last one any time, anywhere. Provided I’m not taking more than my fair share.
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### Author:  [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/5 "2006-09-27T12:39:15Z")
Huh, I actually like it when there’s only half a donut, bagel, whatever. Usually it’s some sort of food item that’s not good for me, but I want some anyway. When there’s only half it’s like half the guilt but all of the pleasure!
As for the others, I’d eat it. Why not? Assuming everyone else has had one, I see no reason that I (or somebody quicker) should not eat it.
**Nava** , I’m going to start saying that now. And when people look at me in confusion, I’ll eat it and say, “Hey, I gave you your chance.”
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/6 "2006-09-27T15:17:05Z")
> [@934spe](#):
>
> To go along with the OP question at hand, how many people cut the donut in half, but always go back for the second piece?.. WTF?..
Yeah, the “halfers”. They annoy me. Take the whole damn thing, willya?
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/7 "2006-09-27T15:23:46Z")
Count me in as another person who likes the half being left over. I’ll eat it. It’s better than eating the whole thing.
As for hte OP, sometimes. If I know everyone’s had their fill, I might take it. Or if I’m a latecomer anyway.
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### Author:  [@Lionne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lionne)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/8 "2006-09-27T15:35:29Z")
I’ll take the last one in any situation, but with donuts, I’m a ‘halfer’ The whole thing’s just too much for me; I end up leaving most of it anyway. I’ll take my few bites and savor that.
Unless it’s a Boston Creme…then it’s mine, all mine!
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### Author:  [@StinkyBurrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StinkyBurrito)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/9 "2006-09-27T16:33:45Z")
I feel kind of bad about taking the last one, although I will in certain instances if I am really hungry or if it is really tempting and my will power fails me. I feel like I am depriving someone else and being selfish. I can’t help it.
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### Author:  [@The\_Blue-Sighted\_Shadow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Blue-Sighted_Shadow)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/10 "2006-09-27T16:50:10Z")
My office has an interesting method of dealing with the last whatever. It’s cut in half. Then the half is cut in half. Repeat until all that’s left is a sliver. That’s what gets tossed. The people who cut something in half and then come back for the second half later? They drive me crazy. The most annoying habit in my office is this: taking the top half of the bagel. If you want half the bagel, cut it in half the other way, or take the whole thing, because nobody eats the bottom half of a bagel. Or the remains of a decapitated muffin. What’s really disgusting is the people who take a couple of bites of anything and put it back. Ewwww!
I will take the last one, assuming that it’s my fair share.
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### Author:  [@stretch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stretch)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/11 "2006-09-27T17:40:58Z")
Yes to 1, 2, 3, 4, with the caveat that it is something I actually like to eat.
I usually let people know I’m taking it with a “I’ll just throw my self on this last donut and save you guys from it–you can thank me later.”
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/12 "2006-09-27T17:54:40Z")
Well, I’ll eat the last one… but I’d prefer nobody to be watching.
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### Author:  [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/13 "2006-09-27T17:57:02Z")
There is no such thing as a ‘last donut’… there is only the ‘next donut’…
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/14 "2006-09-27T19:24:44Z")
I felt kinda bad last week - one of our new guys brought in a blueberry cake and he came to me specifically because there was only one piece left and I’d been out when he passed it around. It was very kind of him but I really didn’t want any cake if you can believe that…
I walked past his desk later that day and the lone slice was still sitting there. I probably should have just taken it when he offered and brought it home to my husband. Oh well.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/15 "2006-09-27T19:49:22Z")
Isn’t that the TV-movie starring Richard Boone (TV’s _Hec Ramsey_) as a crusty eccentric millionaire Big-Game Hunter who builds a journey-to-the-center-of-the-earth boring machine that lets him travel to the Pellucidarlike Lost World hidden inside the earth so that he can go huntinmg for the giant prehistoric Last Donut? And it almost kills him? I \*loved[/i that one when I saw it as a kid, even though the Donut was just a guy in a costume. They should remake it now with CGI technology.
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/16 "2006-09-27T19:58:48Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#):
>
> For example, you bring in some sort of snack to share with the office, and everyone descends upon the plate like pirhanas,
Damn straight…I brought in Dunkin Donuts today for a meeting and no one took any 😕 but when I left the box in the break room, _people I’ve never seen before_ came busting down the hallway to snarf up a doughnut!
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/17 "2006-09-27T21:19:30Z")
> [@gigi](#):
>
> \ …_people I’ve never seen before_ came busting down the hallway to snarf up a doughnut!
Last place I worked, there was one guy who always managed to find who had goodies, and he’d help himself, sometimes twice.
He was notoriously cheap, too - methinks there was a connection…
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### Author:  [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/18 "2006-09-27T22:37:51Z")
This is never a problem in my office, the people here will eat all of anything.
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### Author:  [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2006, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/19 "2006-09-27T23:23:32Z")
You have it all wrong, it’s not misplaced politeness that keeps that last donut sitting forever in its lonely glory, and my mom has proved this over and over. She buys job lots of cookies and donuts and suchlike from Costco for her employees and leaves them in the break room. Invariably, there will be one last item that will not be touched, since everyone knows that the last person to eat something is responsible for throwing away the empty container, and nobody wants to be that person. So the thing sits there and gets stale, until my mom–who in addition to being the president of the company was also the only woman around (up until fairly recently, when she hired a female assistant)–would finally throw away the container. She experimented to see how long it would be before somebody else broke down and threw away the box, and her personal best was three weeks before she finally caved. The really sad thing is, though, that since the other unwritten rule is that a new box can’t be opened until the first one is gone, by refusing to throw away the stupid container the guys were screwing themselves out of three weeks worth of goodies. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!
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### Author:  [@Nic2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nic2004)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2006, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-donut/374338/20 "2006-09-28T02:05:57Z")
If only more people realized the problem this causes and ate that one _first_ we wouldn’t have this problem!
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