This made me happy
I ended up at my favorite Indian restaurant today by accident (initially I wanted fries but construction routed me by the Indian place and I thought OHH SAMOSAS *_*). I had only a $20 with me so I walked in and they knew me on sight, already saying, "Take out?" I ordered my usual (alu gobi, medium; and vegetable samosas) and then he said, "And naan?"
"Well I usually get roti, but--I only have a $20 with me. What is this together?"
He rung it up. It was $14 for alu gobi + samosas, and about $17 once the roti was added.
"You can do it," he said and I was already shaking my head.
"Oh, that isn't enough for a tip. I don't need roti."
"No," he said. "That's $3!"
"But that's not a good tip," I told him. "I want to give you a good tip. It's okay, you can take off the roti."
But he was insistent. He said something like, "I want to help you," and so after some hesitation I said, "Are you sure?" At his nod, then I relented and ordered the roti because I fucking LOVE their roti.
I took my dog around for about 15/20 minutes while they made it and went back in. As always, they had everything prepackaged in an easy to carry bag for me, and I thanked them and left.
When I got home, I started unloading everything and discovered to my surprise something I'd never seen before and that I didn't order. A little plastic cup with some sort of liquid inside, and two round balls. I tried one, and they were like donut balls soaked in some sort of sugary liquid, and they're fucking GOOD!
I was so touched! That was so sweet of him to give me that. Now I feel like I owe them even more of a tip, but at the same time, it also made me smile.
I used to think that negative things were rewarded more than positive. It never stopped me from trying to be more of a positive influence than a negative in life, but it did mean that all throughout high school and college especially I often felt that there wasn't much positive reinforcement out there. I was a straight A student, polite to teachers, held the door open for other people, attentive during class, didn't party or drink or use drugs-- and I rarely got much positive feedback for it. It's like it was just expected I should be that way. Meanwhile, the kids who didn't do any of that, who played sports and sucked in school, would get Student of the Month for going from a D to a C. And, while I understood that of course that took effort, it also took a lot of work to stay consistently good in grades and not cause problems.
So for a long time, I thought that saying was true: the nice guy finishes last.
But in everyday life, I feel like good karma does come back to you. I honestly just wanted them to get a good tip so I was totally okay with not getting roti, because it wasn't their fault I'd only brought $20 so their tip shouldn't suffer for it. Getting those little donut balls... I felt like *I* was the one getting a tip, and not even because I deserved it.
It was just so nice. It made my night :)
Also, I'm happy the construction sent me away from BK because this Indian food will last me the whole week or longer for dinner now. The two samosas alone already MORE than filled me up. It's one of the reasons I love that place; I can always get about 3-6 meals (depending on how hungry I am at any given time) out of one trip. Even factoring in the tip, that's only about $3.30/meal.
"Well I usually get roti, but--I only have a $20 with me. What is this together?"
He rung it up. It was $14 for alu gobi + samosas, and about $17 once the roti was added.
"You can do it," he said and I was already shaking my head.
"Oh, that isn't enough for a tip. I don't need roti."
"No," he said. "That's $3!"
"But that's not a good tip," I told him. "I want to give you a good tip. It's okay, you can take off the roti."
But he was insistent. He said something like, "I want to help you," and so after some hesitation I said, "Are you sure?" At his nod, then I relented and ordered the roti because I fucking LOVE their roti.
I took my dog around for about 15/20 minutes while they made it and went back in. As always, they had everything prepackaged in an easy to carry bag for me, and I thanked them and left.
When I got home, I started unloading everything and discovered to my surprise something I'd never seen before and that I didn't order. A little plastic cup with some sort of liquid inside, and two round balls. I tried one, and they were like donut balls soaked in some sort of sugary liquid, and they're fucking GOOD!
I was so touched! That was so sweet of him to give me that. Now I feel like I owe them even more of a tip, but at the same time, it also made me smile.
I used to think that negative things were rewarded more than positive. It never stopped me from trying to be more of a positive influence than a negative in life, but it did mean that all throughout high school and college especially I often felt that there wasn't much positive reinforcement out there. I was a straight A student, polite to teachers, held the door open for other people, attentive during class, didn't party or drink or use drugs-- and I rarely got much positive feedback for it. It's like it was just expected I should be that way. Meanwhile, the kids who didn't do any of that, who played sports and sucked in school, would get Student of the Month for going from a D to a C. And, while I understood that of course that took effort, it also took a lot of work to stay consistently good in grades and not cause problems.
So for a long time, I thought that saying was true: the nice guy finishes last.
But in everyday life, I feel like good karma does come back to you. I honestly just wanted them to get a good tip so I was totally okay with not getting roti, because it wasn't their fault I'd only brought $20 so their tip shouldn't suffer for it. Getting those little donut balls... I felt like *I* was the one getting a tip, and not even because I deserved it.
It was just so nice. It made my night :)
Also, I'm happy the construction sent me away from BK because this Indian food will last me the whole week or longer for dinner now. The two samosas alone already MORE than filled me up. It's one of the reasons I love that place; I can always get about 3-6 meals (depending on how hungry I am at any given time) out of one trip. Even factoring in the tip, that's only about $3.30/meal.