The job of servers at restaurants is many times underrated. Customers don’t realize that these people are doing their best each day to serve anyone as fast as possible, having a smile on their face all the time despite being tired from working long hours. Things get even harder when one works in busy places such as the famous New York City pizzeria Patsy’s which has been around for over 80 years. In fact, it is believed that Patsy’s is the first place to has ever offered pizza by slice.
One of the waiters working there is Armando Markaj.
Recently, Markaj has been serving a woman named Karen and her daughter. Karen, an elderly lady, had no remarks on the service but was offended by the fact there were no enough photos of women among the photos on the walls of the celebrities who have dined there. She decided to ask her waiter why is it like that, to what he said smiling, “Well, summer is coming, probably women don’t like to eat pizza as much. You know, sense of humor.”
He then added that there were in fact photos of female celebrities who have visited the place, among which Barbara Walters, Christine Quinn, and the First Lady. But, according to Karen, that wasn’t much. In fact, she got so mad that she refused to leave Markaj a tip, and wrote on the bill, “Maybe women don’t tip either.”
When Markaj went to clean the table, he noticed the woman had left an envelope behind. When he opened it, he saw a check on $424,000 inside.
Markaj told the owner, Frank, about the check, and the two decided to wait for a couple of days as they were sure Karen would come back looking for it. But since that didn’t happen, they decided to track her down with the help of the social media. Karen learned her check was at the restaurant and went to pick it up. She was very thankful for what the waiter did. Although she refused to tip him for something which apparently wasn’t any of his fault, he still chose to give her her check back. “I’m glad we had it here for you. It would have been dramatic for a lot of people. She was in tears. She was super excited that someone had found it and kept it,” he said.
Karen offered Markaj money, but he refused them, and was only glad he did the right thing.
“Small details like this define us as humans – it’s just a small gesture,” he told ABC7NY News.
Speaking to what the waiter and the owner did for her, Karen said, “I’m so grateful that the insult that we gave him did not prevent him from doing the right thing.”
This story is a perfect reminder that we should treat everyone we meet in life nicely. Kindness doesn’t cost anything, but can change the life of many in an unexpected manner.