A minuscule packet of chilli sauce has triggered a wave of online mockery and criticism over perceived stingy business practices in Malaysia.

A Threads post by @nlwti82 has gone viral after she shared a photo of what appeared to be an extremely tiny portion of chilli sauce given with her food purchase.

In her post, which has already gained 4.1k likes, nearly 400 comments and over 500 shares, shows the sauce packed in a small plastic wrapping that many netizens said looked more like a lab sample than a food condiment.

The image quickly triggered waves of sarcastic and frustrated reactions from Malaysians online.

One of the top comments by ady_eira read, “Is that a sauce or someone’s DNA?”

victoriaseraphineevans joked, “Are we supposed to dip using the spirit of the chilli?”

pelangibooks commented, “It looks like a specimen from a forensic lab.”

“I thought it was a microscope slide to look at bacteria,” juwainijalil added.

ilikethenumber.9 wrote, “It looks like my saliva after a tooth extraction. What kind of business is this?”

Beyond the jokes, many criticised what they described as stingy business practices.

mimisaidi simply said, “So stingy.”

__nescafe0 questioned, “Is sauce so expensive that you have to be this stingy?”

iqhaasyfqh expressed frustration, “I really cannot understand this type of business. How do they think? What are they thinking? Where are they thinking from? Why do they think like this?”

“I don’t understand the mentality of sellers like this,” asyraffasrii added.

Some claimed this was not an isolated case.

aa.min2507 shared, “I always get this when buying fried chicken at the night market.”

jayrhgnss_ also pointed out a hygiene concern, “The sauce is already so little, and then they use a stapler in food handling. Ishh.”

 The Sun Malaysia