We have a tradition in my culture that when somebody gives you a receptacle filled with food, you can’t give it back empty. You have to fill it with candy or cookies or something of the kind. So I’m curious: is there a tradition like that in the US?
I will be returning a small slow cooker that a friend gave me filled with a chili a while ago. I will put my favorite Lindt chocolates in it. Will I have to explain why I’m doing that? Or will people understand?
Clarissa's Blog 
It is a UK custom also (I assume you’ll tell your friend the cooker has choc in it, just in case they might plug it in and start warming it up with out opening the lid first?!)
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Good point. 🙂 I definitely must remember to do that.
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Borrowing things like pots and pans isn’t as common as it used to be, but I’ve definitely heard that you should never return a borrowed thing that can have food in it empty.
It’s probably close to a universal thing. I remember a Korean soap opera where an old lady took bowls of pumpkin stew to various neighbors (followed by the neighbors grumping about what to put in the bowls when they returned them…).
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Thinking more, I think the tradition in the US is more about returning something cooked (in a cooking utensil) so you might explain that you’re substituting chocolate.
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Yes, it does make more sense to cook something in it. But I have a 13,5 lbs excuse for not having time to cook. :-))))
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Definitely a tradition where I grew up but I can’t say if it was universal across India.
The most common scenario was a neighbor borrowing a couple of tablespoons of yogurt as a starter to make their own yogurt and then returning the cup full of the yogurt they made or a dish they made with that yogurt.
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As they say, every recipe of the Jewish cuisine starts the same way: “Knock on the neighbor’s door and ask to borrow an egg.” Because what’s the point of cooking if you can’t be sociable about it.
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That’s a good and polite tradition, but I’m not sure that it is universal in the US. I would say something, just to make sure that the person doesn’t turn on the cooker before removing the chocolates!
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It’s not a tradition around where I live — mostly people just want things back cleaned. But it seems like a nice one. Maybe I should start doing that. 🙂
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