Restaurant Shames Teen Who Bought His Friends Lunch and Paid with Coins
There’s a saying that goes, “No good deed goes unpunished.” That appears to be true, especially in our current culture.
There is no shortage of bullying on social media these days. With a few swipes and clicks, anyone and everyone can post cruel things online.
And they do. Because technology has made it easier for trolls and bullies to hide behind the masks of their screens and still hurt others in the process.
Such is the case for a restaurant in Lynchburg, Virginia. Cohen Naulty and his friends are patrons of the restaurant.
They ate and they paid. Or, more accurately, Cohen paid, using tips he had earned working as a server at Country Kitchen.
The 17-year-old wanted to treat his friends to a meal. He used the only money he had, and most of it was made up of coins.
“It’s just U.S. currency, I’m allowed to use it,” Cohen said in an interview. “It’s not illegal. I’m not doing anything wrong.”
But Beer 88 did not feel the same way, apparently. The restaurant publicly shamed Cohen online. “We’ll just caption this… ‘How not to pay at a restaurant…'” they wrote.
The original post continued the caption with hashtags like #nohometraining and #atleasttheyleftatip, poking fun at Cohen’s payment method.
The boy left more than a tip. For the $45 tab he left a $20 bill and paid the rest in coins, including a generous, more than 20%, $10 tip.
The restaurant has since posted that they meant the original post as a joke. Cohen was disheartened by their unkindness, but since then he has used the experience to do some good and keep a positive attitude.
“This whole thing made me realize how much I love doing this and why… Even if I get made fun of for it!” he posted on his Facebook page, The Quarter Boy.
The giving teen has even started a fundraiser, hoping to pay for meals for others in need. “Paying for someone’s meal can change a really bad day around in just one moment of kindness,” he wrote on the fundraiser’s page.
In just two days, the fundraiser has received a huge response. Cohen has raised over $3,000 of his $5,000 goal.
Way to go, Cohen. What a way to turn the tail of unkindness around on its head. Looks like this coin toss ended in your favor.
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