Most people would probably assume “plain chips” to mean potato chips, but when asking any shaila it’s very important to be specific.
There’s a well known story of the Tzehlimer Rav zt”l no longer paskening shailos by phone after misunderstanding a caller that asked about a piece of “bret” falling into a dish (I’m not sure if it was a pot or bowl) of Pesach soup. The caller was Litvish and asking about actual bread, the Rav thought he meant a piece of wood — and told him to simply take it out of the soup.
In this case it wasn’t a lack of specificity but different Yiddish accents that caused the confusion, but my point is that a more concise question lowers the chance of a misunderstanding leading to a wrong answer — which was most likely the reason for all the tongue-in-cheek replies here — to teach the asker a lesson.