Definition: Given a real-life anecdote of a complex ethical situation, generate a suitable title that describes the main event/root cause of the situation. Imagine that the given text is a social media post, and you have to write the title of the post, so the users can decide to read the main text or not.
Input: About a year ago when my BF and I moved in together, I brought an old beach towel from my family’s house to our new apartment. Fast forward to this weekend where we used it at the pool and I noticed there was a hole in it (big enough to fit a fist through). I was kind of curious about it since I don’t know how it could have even ripped.

The next day when I was washing it, I was curious and asked my BF if the hole was there when I brought it to our place (I specifically worded my question in this way to avoid potentially blaming him). He said yes, I acknowledged. 10 minutes later he asked me if I was asking because I thought he ripped the towel. I replied honestly and said “No, I was just wondering”. Honestly, I could care less about the towel (or any towel for that matter) since we just use it to dry off after the pool. However, he goes on to argue with me that “If you don’t care about the hole, why would you even say anything?”. While I do somewhat agree and understand his point, I realized by his tone that he was being defensive and thought that I was trying to blame him. I answer back slightly annoyed “Look, I don’t care about the towel, I was just asking an innocent, dumb question. I'm not blaming you, I'm not trying to be passive aggressive I was just asking and now I regret it”.

But the thing is, I don’t regret asking, sometimes a dumb question is just a dumb question and nothing more. I was honestly just curious. However, he feels that I shouldn’t have even asked at all since I didn't really care in the first place and my question suggests that he caused the damage. Fwiw, even if he did rip it and didn’t tell me, I wouldn’t care, like I said, it’s just a beach towel. Who is the asshole in this situation?


inquiring about our towel