Employee scolded for buying homeless man a pizza, customer came up with an idea to help

Acts of kindness can lift someone's spirits, but sometimes, they don't go as planned. It's disheartening when good deeds are punished. On Reddit, former pizza joint employee u/Huge_Buddy_2216 shared how his manager criticized him for buying dinner for a homeless man. However, the story took a surprising turn when a customer found a clever way to help.

The employee shared that he was working at a well-known US pizza delivery chain store in the early 2000s. He wrote, “For anyone who has ever worked in the US food service industry, you're probably familiar with what a failing dumpster fire of a restaurant looks like. On many nights it was just me and one driver taking care of the whole restaurant.”

He further shared his grievances as he mentioned that he did not have any breaks during his shift. He said in the post, "Breaks were out of the question because the restaurant would be completely unattended, the recent franchise buyers were complete and total idiots who would show up unannounced to yell at me, and the overwhelming majority of our customers ordered once and then never again. We had pizza deliveries taking 90+ minutes, people bringing them back to the store ... it was a nightmare."

After talking about his workplace's toxic environment, the employee goes on to narrate how one day a homeless man walked into the store to enquire whether the shop had any leftover pizzas. He wrote, "Well, 11 pm rolls around as I'm kind of standing by the phones watching the clock tick down, and a homeless man walks in. He introduced himself as Ricky and asked if we had any leftover pizzas that nobody picked up." 

The employee mentioned that he apologetically informed Ricky that there were no leftovers. But, since he was in a good mood, he asked him what he wanted. The user described the incident saying, "He says he likes the meat lovers' pizza. Since he isn't a sociopath like some of our customers, I say I'll be happy to make him one. Ricky at this point is so thankful that he sits down in one of our chairs and starts bouncing up and down like a little kid."

The former employee had also paid for the pizza on behalf of the homeless man which cost him 12 dollars, equivalent to the wages of an hour and a half at the shop. He calls the transaction a "Good deal." Soon, things took an ugly turn as the manager arrived. "As the pizza comes out of the oven, in comes the area manager - the brother of the franchise owner. He begins shouting as usual and accuses me of stealing from the store,” he wrote.

The user talks about Henry, who is a regular customer at the shop and witnessed the commotion. He narrates, "The area manager shouts a bit more, calls me a liar, says the count better be right that night, and leaves." Soon both Ricky and Henry get their respective pizzas and leave the store with the duo spotted having a chat outside the shop.

The user reveals how Henry came up with a clever plan to feed the homeless man and it all started with a simple cancellation of an order. He revealed, "The next night, Henry calls me for an order. This was unusual because he was generally a once-a-week guy. I also found it unusual that he ordered a meat lovers' pizza instead of his usual supreme. I took it, made it, and 20 minutes later Henry called again apologetically to cancel it. I say OK. In a bizarre coincidence, Ricky rolled in right around that time asking for a pizza. I just so had one that was going to go uneaten sitting under the heater."

The so-called "coincidence" soon started to take place every night as the user narrated, "Henry would call, order a meat lovers' pizza, and I'd make it. Henry would then call again and cancel and Ricky would coincidentally roll in. Every night, same time. You could time it to the second. This went on for months." Unfortunately, the clever scheme finally came to an end after one of his colleagues snitched on him and reported the full story to the manager. In the end, the user shared that the restaurant went under about a year later. 

The heartwarming post went viral and gained around 8.5k upvotes with over 200 comments. u/Ashshaun commented, "Good people doing good for the sake of being good. I love it. Besides if a business can't cover the loss of 1 pizza a day (when most pizza places will give their employees free food anyway) they don't deserve to be in business." Another Reddit user expressed, "This. I've had to deal with homeless people more than a few times when I worked retail. You want a meal? I got you. I just wish I could have helped more. They usually have some nasty problems."

Editor's note: This article was originally published on July 5, 2024. It has since been updated.