A waitress was busy serving tables during the lunch time rush when a 10 year old boy came into the restaurant and was seated in her section.
The waitress was immediately annoyed. She knew that the kid wasn’t going to spend much money at the cafe. He was wasting her time.
But it was her job to serve paying customers, so she walked up to the little boy and placed a menu in front of him.
“How much is an ice cream sundae, miss,” the little boy asked innocently.
“50 cents,” she told him.
“Oh” he said, and looked down at his lap.
“How much is a regular ice cream?” he asked instead.
By this point the waitress was losing patience. She could see the line of adult customers out the door and she wanted to get on with seating customers who would pay more.
“A plain cup of ice cream is 35 cents,” she told the boy briskly. The little boy smiled and ordered the ice cream, and the waitress walked away.
A few minutes later she came back with the ice cream and the bill, put them down in front of the boy and left without saying a word.
The boy quietly ate his ice cream, paid the bill and left the restaurant.
When the waitress saw that the boy had left, she was relived that he hadn’t taken up too much of her time. She walked up to clean the table. But then she saw something waiting there on the table. When she got closer, it broke her heart.
It was a 15 cent tip.
The waitress was speechless. The little boy had only had 50 cents, and had chosen the cheaper ice cream because he included the price of her tip in the cost. He had been thinking about her.
The waitress was filled with shame. How could she have been so cold-hearted towards the boy? He had sacrificed his ice cream sundae to give her a tip.
If we could all just give a little more thought to each other, I know the world would be a much better place. Share this story if you agree.
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