Server ingeniously settles score with customer who tipped fake $100 bill to impress his date

It is said that hospitality is not just about serving food to customers but also serving souls. However, if the customer starts displaying utterly rude behavior, they have to be put in their place. In August 2023, a Reddit user shared a story about their friend who encountered a customer like that in r/pettyrevenge. The man presented the server with a $100 tip that they discovered later, was fake. They were furious but they did something that left the customer dumb-mouthed. They were lauded by people for how they handled the situation.

The server in question received an irate customer one day. The man was one of the regular customers, usually remained quiet, and didn’t tip well. Most of the time, he visited the restaurant with his friends or by himself, where he would sit in the bar and watch a sports game. “I’ve never had a problem with him until he came in one time with a date,” the server wrote.

That specific day, a woman was accompanying the man. The server had never seen the woman before so they assumed the man was on a date. After their meal, the couple called the server and asked them for the check. They went right around the corner from the table to get it.

As they were returning to the table, they noticed that the man was placing a $100 bill on the table. "The guy says to the woman, 'Watch this' as he puts down a hundred dollar bill on the table. He saw me see and he was joking like, 'Oh! you weren’t supposed to see that'," they wrote. He was probably trying to impress the woman, the server thought. But they didn't care about it as they needed money at that time and their focus was on the $100 tip.

To their shock, they discovered that the $100 note was fake. “That means this freaking guy planned this out to impress this woman. It was so frustrating because I needed the money but at the same time I thought it was because I did a great job,” the waiter said. They narrated the entire incident to her manager who thought it was “ridiculous.”

Two weeks later, the obnoxious man visited the restaurant again with the same woman. This time, the server was working on different tables and was quite busy. But when their manager asked if they wanted to take the order for the couple’s table and teach the man a lesson, they said yes. It was their chance to settle the score with the man. They walked to their table, with the fake $100 note in their pocket, waiting for the right moment to act. “I get to their table and they instantly recognize me, the woman seemed normal but the guy looked like he was nervous. I pretended nothing happened all the way until I got their check,” the server described.

When they brought the check, they placed it down on the table along with the fake $100 bill, saying, “Hey, not sure if you remember me from last time but I believe you forgot this, just returning it because I believed it was too much.” Apparently, their trick worked. The woman on the table looked confused as if she had spotted the man’s deception. The server walked away. When they returned, they found a big $0.00 from the man as their tip on the signed copy. But on a positive note, the woman who was also sitting at the same table and saw the whole charade of her date, left a $50 tip for the server. 

“One can only assume that the guy didn’t want to tip on his card so he wrote obnoxiously big zeros on the tip and that $50 just happened to be where the woman was sitting, so I’m hoping she had placed it there,” the server reflected, adding that they hoped the woman eventually saw the red flags that the man showed.

The server’s story was upvoted by 15,000 people and over 730 left comments on it. u/tricularia commented, “My dad always told me that if you want to know how someone will act in a long-term relationship, pay attention to how they treat servers in restaurants. And since I started paying attention, I am definitely noticing a pattern there.”

u/Its_only__forever shared their own similar experience, “As someone that has been in the industry for over 2 decades, I love this. I had a party once that tipped me in pennies spread across the table when they left. I scooped that s**t up so fast and chased them out and just dumped it at their feet with an 'I think you forgot something.' Yes, I got in trouble. Yes, it was worth it.”

Many said the woman needed to know that the man was a liar. “This is fabulous! I hope the lady dumped him because you showed her what kind of jerk he was,” said u/assignmentfit461. u/thekeekses added, “As a woman who was raised by a single mother who was a server for many many years, I ended a relationship with a guy because he didn't tip.”

u/Careless_Candle6771 shared from her personal experience. "The place I work at is a hot spot for 1st dates and any time I cash a couple out, I ask them if they want their receipt. The dude usually says no as the merchant copy is being printed and then I can see the $0 tip and I go, "ok!" And then just leave it face up on the table anyway. My god, do I love when the women run back with cash saying, "Oh, my god I'm so sorry!"

Editor's note: This article was originally published on June 24, 2024. It has since been updated.