Have you ever worked in the food service industry? The hours are bad and the pay is even worse. If you’re a good waiter or waitress and you remember to keep coming around to fill your guests waters and ask them how their food is, you’ll be lucky to get a decent tip.
You’re also guaranteed to run into ill-tempered, rude customers who won’t leave a single dime for your hard work. But, every now and then something amazing happens: you get a ridiculous sum. You’ve probably seen the celebrity big tippers that have gone viral over the years — like when Jim Carrey dropped an extra $225 on a $151 bill. We’ve also seen when crazy tips go bad, like the time a drunk customer in Colorado added an additional $1,088 to a $60 bill only to beg to get his money back.
This story is the best of them all. It’s the tale of an Irish-born waiter named Ben Millar, living in Houston. He wanted to take his girlfriend Taryn Keith and his soon-to-be-born son on a trip home to Ireland to visit his family but his longings seemed unrealistic. That is, they did, until a couple he was serving began discussing their love for the band U2. “The customer informed Ben that he had just been in Ireland to see the band,” Keith told The Independent. “Ben, jokingly said, ‘Wow, I wish I could go back there for a weekend and visit my family’, thinking nothing of it.”
The couple were touched by the waiter’s story. Their bill was only $122.87, but they left a tip of $750 and a note that read, “Hopefully, this can get you back to Ireland for the holidays.” In a world where it sometime feels like people are more divided than ever, it’s nice to know that there are still people out there doing nice things for total strangers. Now that’s something to be thankful for.
