Mysophobia, also known as germophobia, bacillophobia and bacteriophobia, is a pathological fear of contamination and germs. Symptoms include an obsession with sanitation, a need to clean excessively and an aversion to people touching your stuff.
So when Iva, from Bulgaria, asked her friend Petar to catsit for her, Petar cheekily set about having a little fun with her phobia by taking selfies around the house, fingering a variety of stuff.
"I can't say her germophobia is a condition or a severe state," Petar assured Bored Panda. "More of an always-have-to-have-coasters kind of person, or no-shoes-in-the-house. We joke about it a lot, she tags along with it."
"She didn't ask me specifically not to touch her stuff, she even let me stay at hers for a week while she was away and I was looking for a new flat! I was just hungover and had to wake up at 10am to feed her cats and felt a bit annoyed and wanted to wind her up as payment."
He certainly succeeded with that! Touching everything from cushions to cats and lamps, Petar's hangdog, deadpan expression while doing his dastardly deeds only adds to the humor of the post.
Even the cat's stuff wasn't safe from the finger! And we all know how fastidious felines can be... "There are two cats, a black one called Bonka and a white one called Stoycho," Petar explained. "I had to do it over the weekend but it's an ongoing thing. Whenever she is away either me or some of our friends goes and catsits."
"I get along with the cats very well!"
What do you think? Do you know any germophobes? How do you think they would react to photos of their stuff being touched like this? Is germophobia even a laughing matter, or should we take it more seriously? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Here's how people reacted to the deadpan prankster
