People Share The Most High Risk, Low Reward Thing They've Ever Done

Curiosity Could Have Killed This Cat

I once followed a young homeless man I just met because he wanted to show me where he was staying. It was nighttime and he invited me down into a dip in the trees. We walked through a dark section of forest then he showed me some rocks and small caves with a couple beds set up. Then we left. I literally followed a stranger into the dark woods because...curiosity?

- somebtchsthrowaway

The Pictures Sucked Anyway

I once climbed an old truss bridge to get some neat pictures of myself. I climbed under it and sat on the beams beneath the bridge. I climbed the the very top. I hung off the edge of the bridge above several rocks.

Once I got done and showed the pictures to my friends they said they sucked.

- basic_w1te_boy

Degrees 

Taking a year in a program I wasn't interested in to try and get a girl, who turned me down instantly.

I wasn't horny, I was lonely. We were good friends prior, not so much afterwards as sh!t got awkward; it was also my second year, so I did get a useless degree I never claimed for my trouble (social science.) So there's the reward, I guess.

- knowing_ghost

Don't feel too bad. I had a friend turn down a full scholarship to Johns Hopkins because she met a guy at a local college when we were taking classes there to finish up high school. She decided to go to that college instead. Her and the boy she changed her life for didn't make it through the summer. 17 years after she graduated high school, she's finally, this year, graduated med school.

- gtg930r

Lost In The Towers

Climbing up a water tower when drunk to find a friend. Turns out said friend was not even lost. He was yelling at me from the base of the tower.

- CheekyBlind

Oh, that reminds me.

We got the bright idea to go rappelling off a cell tower at like 3 in the morning. This was not a spur of the moment decision, it was planned. After we were done we were pulling the rope down and I guess we had left a knot in it? Rope gets stuck between the towers vertical and horizontal supports about 15' out from the ladder we were using.

Like it was stuck. At least 50' off the ground.

I wasn't about to leave my $100 climbing rope hanging there so I climbed up... No rope... and walked out on this 15' crossmember balancing with nothing to hold on to. Made it to the vertical support where the rope was caught, kicked it down, and then had to make it back to the ladder.

Obviously I succeeded but about 30 minutes after I got down I had the worst stress headache I've ever had in my life. I was puking my head hurt so bad.

I think I was 16 or 17 at the time. It wasn't even that fun... a rock face is much better than just hanging in empty space and sliding down the rope.

- companion_2_the_wind

Crocs & Hippos

I swam in the Zambezi when I was drunk on a tiger fishing trip. Still can't believe I was that stupid. For those that don't know, its infested with hippos and crocs, known for taking people.

- Cow-Brown

Smoking

I started smoking. Like wtf is this stupid sht?

It has literally no benefit; it just makes me uncomfortable when I don't do it and when I do it as well.

- MrMcQuestionable

That's the thought that got me through quitting smoking: literally the only thing that it did was temporarily make me stop craving it. Other drugs at least offer a reason for people to take them, like they feel good or help you relax. Not cigarettes, though. You're always in one of three states - smoking, feeling normal for half an hour, or wishing you were smoking. What a way to live, huh?

It's such a stupid damned habit, and so hard to quit. But really, think about that on your next smoke break: is this making you feel good, or just temporarily relaxed because the craving has stopped for a few minutes? Getting in that mindset helped me a lot when I stopped.

Get To Zero

Once my mom started counting backwards from 5, and I started counting down from 3. She stared daggers at me and asked what I was counting to. I said that's how much time she has to stop pretending she was going to do shit when she got to 0.

My spirit lives on to warn others of my misfortune.

- The_Celtic_Chemist

Near-Swan-Dive-Experience

Whilst building a house, the second floor had an I beam that extended our into nowhere that needed to be painted with rust protection paint. The floor had not been installed yet and the joists were still going in. To save time, I shimmied out to the end of the beam and started painting. Every bit of wind made the whole thing sway. Just my movements made it wiggle a fair bit. Nearly took a six meter swan dive to a concrete floor about 12 times. I could have painted it after the floor was in but that would mean laying down drop sheets and lots of messing around. Should have waited. Was a totally stupid thing to do.

- PapaOoMaoMao

Paper Signs

My friends and I used to target and steal those signs that said "If you are caught stealing you will be prosecuted". Many illegal things were done and many hundreds of thousands of dollars of stuff was ignored to steal increasingly difficult to obtain paper signs.

- Churonna