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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/Sure-Swan9081 on 2024-11-03 15:34:19+00:00.

I volunteered to help set up the 5k. They placed my friend and me at the first water station. They only gave us a drum of water and 2 gallons to refill. But the real problem was the cups. They only gave us 100 cups, and there were 300 participants. When the runners started arriving, we immediately started handing out water to everyone, but it was clear that there wouldn’t be enough cups. Once the cups were done, people would just give me their bottles to fill up. One family came up and the dad handed me his bottle. I was in such a rush to give all water that I grabbed his bottle and dunked it in the water tank. One of the other volunteers looked at me, dissapointed and baffled, and told me what little water left now had to be dumped. I realised what I had done, how I dumped my bare hand and this man’s bottle into the water tank effectively contaminating it. I then went to sneakily dump the water behind bushes while the other volunteers told the runners that we were out of water.

At least 150 runners did not get water until the next water station. But that water station also had few cups. In the end, there was maybe 50 people that had no drink of water at all until they arrived at the finish line.

TL;DR: I dumped my bare hand and a strangers bottle into the water tank and had to sneakily throw it away while we told the runners there was no more water.

Edit: I feel I should point out that it was a community event, so most people were inexperienced and just wanted to participate. Also, I live in the tropics, it might be a cultural thing to give out water. Especially with the heat