Featured Image Credit: Mike Kemp/Contributor/Getty / Reddit/Otherwise_Basis_6328/Taco Bell
It's never nice when you're mistaken about something, but one particular aspect of Taco Bell's interior has left many suffering from another bad case of the Mandela Effect.
The Mandela Effect, otherwise known as 'false memory', began when researcher Fiona Broome was convinced that she'd remembered coverage of Nelson Mandela's death in prison in the 1980s, despite the anti-apartheid politician dying much later in 2013.
Other instances of this phenomenon occurred when people though the Berenstain Bears were actually called the Berenstein Bears, or when many were convinced that Mr Monopoly wore a monocle - he doesn't, I can promise you.
Some have wildly attributed this phenomenon to a 'time traveler' who alters the past, and while this explanation is obviously a bit ridiculous, these instances of widespread false memories do keep happening.
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The latest of these cases then appears to involve Taco Bell, as some are now absolutely convinced that the Mexican fast food restaurant's charity coin boxes used to be filled with water.
This comes from a post on the 'Mandela Effect & Glitches in the Matrix' Facebook group, where one woman details her confusion, as she remains convinced that the coin boxes contained water in the past:
"I clearly remember they used to hold water. Nobody I've ever discussed with recalls the water but I am 100% certain they DID used to be full of water. Anyone else remember them with water?"
It appeared to be quite the conflicting topic, with many going back and forth over whether these boxes were water-filled or simply pertained an illusion that they were. They certainly look like they 'could' contain water, but is that enough?
While not directly related to the feeling of the Mandela Effect, one post on the r/nostalgia subreddit regarding the Taco Bell coin boxes does seem to confirm a popular theory.
"We had one where I worked back in 96-98." The top comment details, "It was filled with water."
Aha! It appears as if the original poster isn't suffering a crisis of memory, but instead it appears as if there were different versions of this coin game - one which was filled with water and one which was empty.
The reason behind them either having water or being without appears to be another conflict though.
One camp claims that the water was removed as it was disgusting: "I think they realized it was impossible to keep them clean with dirty coins sitting in the stagnant water."
Another explained that it "ended up being a breeding ground for bacteria on a counter where your food gets delivered to you." Gross.
On the flip side though, some argue that both having the water and removing it made the 'game' - which rewarded winners with a free taco - harder, and it was a big conspiracy by Taco Bell to give out less free food.
"The fact that they rigged this game even MORE by taking out the water shows that whoever made that decision is a greedy b******."
Both are compelling and believable arguments, and we'd be surprised if the two combined caused the change to be made, but what we can be sure of is that these coin boxes did indeed have water in them at some point.
