2 men ordered food and drinks. Then they quietly left without paying. My coworker was in tears — the bill was a few hundred, and she counted every penny. I ran out into the cold without a jacket and saw them. I shouted, “You didn’t pay!” And then one of them turned around with a look of confusion rather than guilt. For a split second, I wondered if I had misunderstood what happened. But when I explained that my coworker would be held responsible for the unpaid bill, their expressions softened. The taller man sighed and glanced at his friend before walking back toward me. “We thought it was already settled,” he said gently. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded receipt, realizing it belonged to a different café they had visited earlier. A genuine mistake—yet one that carried heavy consequences for someone who relied on every shift to get by. Continue reading…
