The Waiter Tipped Off The Manager

I was at a very nice restaurant with my then-husband and mother-in-law. She loved to take us out to dinner and always insisted on paying. We did sometimes manage to get her to let us pay, but that was rare and not really part of the story.

She always paid for the meal with a card and the tip in cash since she had this idea that tips on cards often went to the restaurant and not necessarily the waiter. I guess that has happened, but I’m sure it’s not the norm. But whatever…

The bill came and she paid with a card, not including the tip. We were still sitting at the table finishing up dessert and coffee when the manager came over and asked:

Manager: “Was there a problem with the meal? If so, you should have informed the waiter when it happened and not just stiffed him.”

Mother-In-Law: “The meal was fine. We have no intention of stiffing the waiter!”

It was awfully weird to have a manager confront you and accuse you of stiffing a waiter. I was shocked! I waited tables for years and would NEVER do this. The waiter saw no tip on the bill, so they immediately went to the manager to complain.

Manager: “Well, why didn’t you include the tip on the bill?”

Mother-In-Law: “Um, because we were planning on leaving cash?”

Cash, by the way, that was already on the table.

Manager: “Oh, okay, sorry to bother you.”

The manager left. We finished our meal and never went back.