However one very lucky New York City waitress was left a giant $3000 tip on a bill totalling $43.50 by a customer who goes by the name of Mike.
Mike told ABC News in America that he was inspired to leave his server the tip after hearing about her impending eviction from her apartment.
“This woman had been serving us for almost a year now. She’s a lovely individual, and she talked about how she was served an eviction notice last month,” Mike, who asked to remain anonymous, told ABC News. “I just had also been constantly thinking about for quite some time my teacher’s project and this foundation, and I thought it was an appropriate time.”
Pay-it-forward: Man leaves 7000 per cent tip for NYC waitress
The foundation Mike was referring to is ReesSpecht Life, an organisations that was started by Rich Specht, Mike’s eighth-grade science teacher from years ago, which encourages people to participate in random acts of kindness and then pay-it-forward.
Mr Specht and his wife, Samantha started the foundation after their 22-month-old son, Richard Edwin-Ehmer Specht’s (nicknamed Rees for his initials) died in a drowning accident and they wanted to acknowledge the help they had during that difficult time.
“We wanted to pay them [the people that helped them] back, and no one would take anything in return. We thought, ‘if no one will let us pay it back, we’ll pay it forward,’” Specht told ABC News.
Through their foundation the Specht’s try to inspire people to pay kindness forward in memory of their son – inspiration that motivated Mike to leave the massive tip.
Mike even took his act a little further to pay tribute to his former teacher.
Along with the receipt Mike left a note that begins:
“Thank you for your kindness and humility. My teacher in middle school had such a difficult experience a few years ago which has sparked me to do this.”
Specht’s former student left a few requirements for the waitress:
“Go to reesspechtlife.com and learn!,” he wrote.
“Don’t let pay it forward end with you.
“Since it is about the idea and not about you, or me, if you decide to share this, please don’t use either of our names!”
The note ends: “Thanks for always being around for all of my shows off and on Broadway. I hope that one day someone gives as much love and happiness into the world as you do.”
After the waitress got over the initial shock of Mike’s generosity she tracked down Mr Specht to tell him she had a picture of something incredible, something that helped her so much and it was all because of him and the memory of his son.
Rich took to his website to express how touched he his former student’s kind-hearted act to pay-it-forward: “To think that someone I had a decade ago would honour my little boy or even remember his eighth-grade science teacher in such a way blows me away.”
The New York server, who wishes to remain anonymous, told AOL she that she had managed to let Mike know she’ll pay his generosity forward when she sees the opportunity.
