An attempt was made by a man to humiliate a “rude, unreasonable and arrogant” bus driver on social media, but the court of public opinion has spoken: ’twas the commuter who needs to be condemned.

The commuter had taken to Facebook yesterday afternoon (Dec 16) to complain about an experience that supposedly left him and his buddy embarrassed while boarding an SBS Transit bus.

According to the man, his friend had lost his wallet. He would have to pay for the bus fare on behalf of his friend, but as it turned out, he was short of 40 cents. He made sure to mention that he did have a single $50 note on him, but of course, that wasn’t feasible for the bus’ farebox.

The bus driver then offered a suggestion: try asking some of the other passengers on the bus for some spare change. This was apparently the most offensive idea ever, shared the man in his post.

“He embarrassed us by asking us to ask for coins from the other passenger therefore we felt humiliated. So I told him that we would call and give a complaint but he told us that he would tell his superior about this incident,” the man wrote.

And so he took a picture of the bus driver and uploaded it on social media, confident that netizens would join him in slamming the “unreasonable” driver.

As you can imagine, the overzealous pursuit for justice — over 40 cents, mind you — backfired right in his face. Though he definitely managed to get his post shared widely on Facebook, netizens were not on his side. And they had a lot of things to say about him.

Already, his complaint (and subsequent backfiring) is haunting him in other Facebook posts.

ilyas@asiaone.com