My Brother Won the Lottery… But I Swapped Our Tickets

I think about this way too much. It’s been years, but every time I see a lottery ad or hear someone talk about a big win, I feel sick.

My brother isn’t the type to play the lottery. He’s always been the responsible one - good job, steady life, never takes dumb risks. But one random day, we were walking through a shopping centre, and as we passed a newsagent, he decided to grab a lucky pick ticket. Just a total impulse buy. I laughed at him, saying he was wasting his money, but for some reason, I grabbed one too, just for shits and giggles.

A few days later, I was at his place and saw his ticket just sitting there on the kitchen bench, half-buried under some unopened mail. I knew the draw had already happened, so out of pure curiosity, I checked the numbers.

And my stomach dropped. It wasn’t the jackpot, but it was a lot. Low six figures. The kind of money that could wipe out debt, buy a new car… or cut my mortgage in half.

I don’t even remember making the decision. My own ticket - a total dud - was still in my wallet. Before I knew it, I swapped them and left shortly after.

A week later, we were having a beer, and he casually mentioned that he’d forgotten to check his ticket. I shrugged and said, “Yeah, you probably didn’t win anyway.” He laughed, agreed, and said he’d probably thrown it out already. I wanted to throw up.

Cashing it was easy. The whole sum went into my mortgage and helped me pay it off at least a decade earlier. No one knew.

He’s doing pretty well for himself - good job, nice place, no real financial worries. That helps ease the guilt a little. Makes it easier to convince myself it wouldn’t have changed much for him anyway.

This afternoon, at a charity raffle we entered for a good cause but didn’t win anything, he casually complained about how he never wins anything, and I immediately felt a tight knot in my chest. I laughed along, acted like it was nothing, but in the back of my mind, I wondered how different things could’ve been if I hadn’t swapped our tickets.

EDIT: A lot of people are questioning how I was able to claim the prize if I wasn’t the one who bought the ticket. In my country, if you buy a physical lottery ticket from an outlet with cash, there’s no way to trace it back to the original buyer. The ticket itself is basically like cash. Whoever has it can claim the prize. I believe it’s only registered to a buyer if the ticket was purchased online.