Man outsmarts mooching coworker who always wants to split the bill, announces last minute he has to pay for his own expensive meal: 'Revenge is a dish best served medium rare'

Author image for Isabella Penn
Isabella Penn
Apr 5, 2025 5:00 AM EDT

There are two different kinds of friends: the ones who split the bill evenly, and the ones who are adamant about keeping it separate. I studied abroad in college with a group of people I'd never met. My three roommates and I went out to eat probably almost every day of the week, and we always split the bill evenly. Partially because in the country we were studying in, they didn't split the check based on individuals. But also none of us were math majors, so it was just easier to divide the total by four. None of us ever minded given we typically ordered meals within the same price range anyway. 

Well, one time we went out to dinner with another group on the trip and they were not so keen on splitting evenly. They made sure everyone paid up to the exact cent of their bill. I guess I get it, but it was interesting to see the two completely different dynamics of the group. And hey, maybe they had already dealt with someone in the group mooching off them before and they weren't about to have that happen again. At least, that was definitely the case for this group of coworkers.

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  • In this story, one man got fed up with a new addition to the crew who kept ordering the most expensive thing on the menu… then insisting on splitting the bill evenly. So, he finally found the perfect way to make the moocher pay up. Keep reading below. 

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    via Curated Lifestyle For Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • "Made a moocher have to pay"

    I (M36) have a group of good friends from my last job that I still see regularly. We've all moved on to other jobs but still try to hang out every few months or so, depending on everyone's schedule. It's nothing fancy, usually just grab a bite to eat somewhere and catch up.
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  • The problem came at the end of last year. One of my friends. became good friends with his co- worker, I'll call "Mike". Mike has slowly joined our friend group and has gone out to eat with us twice now. Now Mike is a great guy by all accounts except he has
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  • expensive tastes and tries the "Let's split the bill evenly" even if he's ordered more than anyone else. First time it happened, whatever, it wasn't too bad. The second time, he ordered a full $20 more
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  • than anyone else. I should've stood my ground but I'm too much of a people pleaser. It's something I'm working on. Well I recently got a raise at work and wanted to celebrate with friends. I suggested we go to a my
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  • steakhouse for lunch, that way people could order off the lunch menu without spending too much. As soon as I mentioned it, Mike loved the idea. What a shocker right?
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  • I've been seeing a bunch of posts lately about this sort of thing and the overwhelming comment is tell the server ahead of time that we'll be splitting the bill. So that is exactly what I did.
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  • We went out for lunch and everybody ordered reasonable lunch dishes, except Mike. He got the steak and lobster. Since I was on the other corner of the table, I got to order last. Before I ordered, I asked everyone at the table if they were ok ordering
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  • separately. I wanted to splurge since I was celebrating and didn't want to make everyone else pay for it. Everyone was on board with it except for one person. I'll let you guess who that was.
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  • While we were all eating and catching up, Mike barely spoke to me. I think he was upset he had to pay his full meal. Oh well, it made my prime rib taste that much better.
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  • Hiker2190 The first time I met my ex- wife we went with a big group to a super nice seafood restaurant. I had just gotten paid that day so I wanted to celebrate.....with a 1lb lobster tail.
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  • When the bill come, everyone in the group insisted on splitting the bill evenly...but I insisted more that I would then cover the tip, which would more than make up for the extravagant dinner I had.
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  • She said years later that's why she agreed to go out with me - because I was a decent upstanding person who would never make someone else pay for his meal.
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  • JEWCEY Split a few more bills and Mike will magically split. Dude is just there for discount food and drinks.
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  • Tuskerslite Sounds like your revenge tasted juicy and delicious!
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  • delulu4drama Mike just needs to split, period
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  • MeepingSim Mikey the Moocher's mooching days are over. Congrats on the raise and the prime revenge!
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  • Chainsaw_59 Years ago I went out with friends and ordered an appetizer as a meal. (One of those three options ones.) No one ordered any appetizers to share. When
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  • my food came out, the "runner" set it in the middle of the table. As I said "That's mine. Pass it down." My "friends" started taking pieces off the plate. When it got to me it was gone.
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  • Come time to pay and we were short the price of the appetizer and someone noticed I hadn't paid in. I gave the waiter $5 for my tea and a tip and told everyone "You ate my
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  • dinner, you pay for it" as I got up and left. Later a few apologized but none of the ones who helped themselves to my food. That's when I realized which ones were crappy friends.
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  • PaixJour Mikey will not be present for the next get-together. Well done you!
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  • ophaus And you framed it perfectly, not as a smite to the conman, but a courtesy to the real friends. Truly impressive!
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  • CoderJoe1 He could've change his order after learning the demise of his mooching plan
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  • Uber N00b719 Revenge is a dish best served medium-rare.
    via UberN00b719

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tricked friendship work coworkers friends petty revenge lunch entitled people karma bills moocher money entitled people oddly satisfying
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