The deli owner, u/TreacleRight282, shared their story to the popular Reddit forum r/AmITheA**hole to see if they were wrong for refusing the request. Their post earned over 9,400 upvotes and 1,200 comments in nine hours.

The original poster (OP) says that they own a deli in a small community. The teen, in their estimation, is 13 or 14. He’s a regular customer, but has been buying a variety of food that’s forbidden in his religion—the OP likens it to the rules about keeping kosher and halal in Judaism and Islam respectively, but says that it’s a different religion.

“I’m not one to judge people for the food they eat, if you pay for it you’ll get it. I’m running a business here and I don’t want to turn customers away,” u/TreacleRight282 wrote.

The teen’s parents visited the deli owner, and asked them not to sell the particular items he’s not supposed to eat. OP said that it’s not really their business, and rather, the parents should take the issue up with their kid. The teen’s mother said he was “going through a phase,” and that the OP can help, but again, they declined.

“Nobody is forcing the child to come here and quite frankly if I don’t sell it the kid goes somewhere else, it’s not as if I’m the only one selling this forbidden food around,” they wrote, adding that there are “10 other places” within a five-minute walk from his shop that the teen could go to.

“You could have been 10% of the solution instead of 0%,” the OP reports the mother saying as the parents left.

When they told their wife, the OP was surprised when she took the parents’ side, leading them to ask Reddit if they were wrong after all. In comments, the OP clarifies that the item in question is not illegal, but something “even 3 year olds eat everywhere,” and would be seen as “completely innocent” by outsiders. The OP says that if they were to deny the teen, “other customers… would probably think I’m being racist to the kid.”

While, as the OP suggested, Judaism and Islam immediately come to mind for many people when they think of religious food restrictions, many religions have dietary rules. For example, Hinduism bans the eating of beef products, but not dairy products and Sikhism prohibits alcohol, according to the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Some Christian religions also have food restrictions. The Church of Latter-Day Saints—perhaps better known as the Mormon church—bans alcohol, tobacco and caffeine, the Journal says. Seventh-Day Adventists are strict ovo-lacto vegetarians, according to the Journal, as their religion bans all meats, as well as alcohol, tobacco and caffeine.

Reddit roundly backed the deli owner’s decision to keep selling the forbidden foods to the teen.

“[Not the A**hole]. His parents were asking you to help them enforce rules from a belief system that this kid clearly isn’t interested in following. If he’s a teenager he’s old enough to start making decisions about what he believes and if his parents are so worried about it they should have a genuine conversation with the kid instead of having random deli workers refuse him service in an attempt to control what he does and enforce their belief system onto him,” u/CephalopodSpy wrote in the top-rated comment with over 11,400 upvotes.

“If [a] kid has an allergy why is it my job to make sure he doesn’t purchase it? And how would I even know? And if a parent came in and told me not to sell it because of an allergy it still wouldn’t be my problem. That’s weird,” u/jlj1979 added.

“[Not the A**hole]. You were absolutely correct, it’s not your business, and it’s between them. The parents trying to put the responsibility on you was 100% in the wrong,” u/SummerOracle wrote.

“[Not the A**hole]. It isn’t something he’s allergic to so you’re doing nothing wrong. He’s of an age where he’s allowed to start making decisions for himself (within reason). My 13 year old has just made the decision to go vegan - and I respect that and instantly said ok. If one of my children decided to follow a particular religion (we aren’t religious but in laws are deeply religious) I would say ok and support them,” u/Global_Monk_5778 wrote. “It isn’t on a shop keeper/stranger to enforce a religion he is clearly rebelling against, it is for his parents to sit down and have a talk about. And it’s down to the kid to decide what he truly wants. Trying to force it is just going to backfire spectacularly on the parents.”

Newsweek reached out to u/TreacleRight282 for comment.