If I purchase packaged food during a trip, never open it, and leave it in my hotel room when checking out, will the staff be permitted to eat it?

I'd rather they didn't, but I can't stop them, and they do it at their own risk. (I have no control over what they eat or how they procure their food outside the hotel, or during their off-duty time, either.) Perishable items are never left behind, and the best thing to do with them in a lot of cases is to throw them out, but that's going to be a little counterintuitive to a low-paid employee who sees an unopened food item that would otherwise go to waste.

We have policies that require high-value items to be turned in to lost and found, and that forbid taking any item from the hotel that you did not bring with you without permission; but if I were staying in a hotel and left behind an unopened bag of cookies or chips, or a couple of unopened beers in a six-pack, I wouldn't count on ever seeing them again.

Originally appeared on Quora