The Lessons Life Teaches, A Collection of Short Stories.

The Scam

I was sitting in a comfortable mom-and-pop restaurant having lunch with a friend I hadn't seen for a while. We had just opened the menus, when at the table across from ours, a customer launched into a loud, acrimonious verbal assault directed at a horrified young waitress. It was nearly impossible to ignore and of course curiosity led us to focus on what horrible catastrophe must have occurred to generates such ire. In disbelief, it turned out that the waitress brought out three complimentary rolls to their table. The issue was they were not hot enough to melt the complimentary butter. The waitress immediately took the offending rolls back to the kitchen where they were heated and returned to the customer with a placating apology. At that point I had the incredible urge to get up and express my thoughts on civil behavior. But I figured it was not my place and probably best not to intercede. At the end of their lunch, the customer again loudly took the waitress to task. Stating her meal should be comped because it was ruined due to the conflict over the 'ice cold' rolls. We watched as the waitress took the bill to the manager and sure enough the manager said there was no charge for her meal. This entire episode, as it played out, was very disheartening to me. The rewarding of rude ignorant behavior under the guise of the customer is always right or to avoid confrontation. The event occurred a while ago, but it still sticks in my craw. It was as if evil triumphed over goodness. I still wonder how many free meals this woman has obtained through time using this scam.