Rewarding honesty

My daughter recently celebrated her birthday, and, as is tradition, she got to decide where to go for dinner. She chose Rainforest Café in Auburn Hills this year. There were five adults and the three kids that night so we were a party of eight. When we were done with our tasty dinner, the waiter (is that still the correct term?) brought the check and I inserted my payment into the sleeve. He came back a little while later, collected the payment folder and said "I'll be right back with your change."

I don't remember where, but I'd just read something about how to "correctly" collect that folder. It was an article complaining about how some waiters asked if you wanted any change back, or other such comments that assumed you were leaving a tip in the first place. I don't remember the details, but in the end, the article proclaimed that the "polite" way to address that was to, as our waiter did, say "I'll be right back with your change." So when he said it, it kinda caught my attention.

Anyway... I stated that we were all set (essentially, "Keep the change"), and after a polite "thank you" he was off. I was a little surprised when several moments later he came back to the table with the check folder and knelt down beside me. I was sure that I had counted the bills correctly... He went on to say something to the effect of "I'm either here to remind you, or to say thank you..." He stated that because we were a party of 8, the gratuity had already been added in (he showed me on the bill), but it looked like I hadn't noticed that and had left an additional tip. WHAT?! Someone was offering to give back money instead of just pocketing it?!

I had indeed neglected to see that the tip was already included, and had, in fact, added "the tip" in addition to the already calculated tip. He graciously offered to let me recalculate how much money to include in the folder (to take back the "extra tip") and I admit that I thought about it for a second (who can afford to be giving away money unnecessarily these days? Not ME!), but thought better of it and said that he could keep it. I was shocked that he was so upstanding about it. But, because he was, I don't feel bad giving him a reward for that honesty. He was as great waiter, kept my water glasses filled, interacted with the kids, etc. I hope he sees it as a reward for a job, and a person, well done and not as someone trying to throw money around. Based on precedence, I'll believe that he did.