This Is A Restaurant, Not An English Seminar

I was serving in the dining room. We had those really long booths that can fit like eight people in them comfortably. I was serving one of those tables, and one guy was sitting at the very end by the wall. I came over and started pre-bussing their table.

Me: *To the guy at the end* “Can you hand me your plate? I can’t reach that far.”

He didn’t move at all or say anything for a second.

Customer: *Smirking* “Oh! Did you want me to hand it to you? You said, ‘can I,’ not, ‘may I’.”

Me: “Well, most people get the hint.”

He looked surprised for a minute, and the others looked at him, and I was like, “Oh, s***, I made them mad.” Then, he started cracking up laughing.

Customer: “I deserved that.”

He handed me the plate.