25-year-old waitress tips herself $10 on a $17 order, gets fired after customer tells her manager: 'The waitress who took my order gave me a refund'

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Sep 11, 2025 8:00 AM EDT

If you've ever worked in restaurants, you know that the #1 reason that people get fired is because they stole from the cash register. It's just one of those things that happens when you're paying employees $8 an hour and they have a lot of access to much more cash than that nearly every second of the day. A cash register being short is one of those things that a manager could hypothetically blame on a younger, less experienced employee. Still, that excuse only works a couple of times before higher-ups start getting suspicious. To steal from the cash register without getting caught, you have to be smart with your thievery, and most people who get away with stealing for a while eventually get caught.  

A significant portion of the population believes that stealing from work is less morally reprehensible than stealing from individuals. In terms of harm caused, it's certainly less harmful to steal from a multi-million dollar corporation than from an individual with a couple of thousand bucks to their name. I'm inclined to agree, though I don't condone stealing in general. 

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  • The woman in this story stole from a customer at her workplace. She didn't steal a customer's wallet from her purse, but she did add a $10 tip to a customer's sandwich order without him knowing. Luckily, this guy orders the same sandwich from this place all the time, and could immediately tell that something was not right.

  • STGILES PANTRY
    via Anna Mould

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Server tipped herself 10$ on my to go order and I complained. She lost her job.

    I go to this restaurant quite often, locally, for just a pulled pork sandwich. Every single time I order the same thing Togo, it's 17.55. With taxes & fees and all the new ridiculous charges they pat on. I know this because I checked my banking statement. I
    via u/snowbunnysiren
  • Cheezburger Image 10552836352
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • recently ordered this sandwich this past week over the phone and noticed I was charged $29.20. The same thing I order twice a month, I made a mental note. I went in for pick up and immediately asked for a receipt. I was told that there was something wrong with the
    via u/snowbunnysiren
  • Cheezburger Image 10552836608
    via Simon Kadula

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • machine, so I asked to speak to the manger about my sandwich pricing. The waitress who took my order, told me to avoid any further confrontation she would void it out of the system because the manager wasn't there and wouldn't be till 4. I said okay and
    via u/snowbunnysiren
  • left, mind you in my head I got a free sandwich and I'm coming to talk to the manager at 4 because that was kinda shady. I finally get to speak with the manager who was able to confirm the receipt we're working fine & she was able to pull up my order from that day and see there was an excess tip left for the waitress and that was
    via u/snowbunnysiren
  • the extra charge. I didn't make a big deal out of it, I was refunded. I was genuinely curious about the sandwich pricing and if they were charging a larger Take out percentage-which was currently 10%. I went in today and found out she was fired right after. Should I had just taken my free sandwich and let it go? Edit: she was clearly pregnant and couldn't be no more then 25
    via u/snowbunnysiren
  • kk1289 ΝΤΑ Purposely putting in the tip wrong is theft. I was a server for years and if this was my co-worker I would've never trusted her again. She's probably the one who steals all the pens other people bring from home too.
    via u/kk1289
  • snowbunnysiren OP Yah could've been an honest mistake but I doubt it by the way she responded when asked for a receipt
    via u/snowbunnysiren
  • TheRealPaj If she did it to you, she's doing it to others. You did the right thing.
    via u/TheRealPaj
  • mrbigbusiness That's just it. OP didn't get her fired over a one- time thing. This was just the final thing. Manager probably went back through her receipts and saw a pattern.
    via u/mrbigbusiness
  • Caftancatfan A single incident like this is more than enough to get someone fired from a food service job. But OP absolutely did the right thing.
    via u/Caftancatfan
  • kk1289 Yeah, if it was a mistake she wouldn't have lied about the machine and then tried to void the whole thing. Mistakes happen, but she was trying to cover her tracks. I bet this wasn't the first time she's done something sketchy, this was probably the last straw. Totally not your fault.
    via u/kk1289
  • Gaming_So_Whatever You are an agreeable individual, aren't ya...NTA Trust me, no new person would make an "honest" mistake of "adding exactly $10" to the tip amount, then lie to you about the receipt printer and then be able to compeltely void out a transaction without someone's approval unless they were deliberately trying to hide something. I guarantee you were not the first or even the last, that day alone.
    via u/Gaming_So_Whatever
  • Tasty-Jicama5743 Makes me wonder if the manager started looking into other to-go orders that waitress placed and found the same thing on numerous orders? There would have been no choice but to fire her!
    via u/Tasty-Jicama5743
  • Less_Mess_5803 Imagine if she did that to 50 customers a day, nice little earner if no one complained.
    via u/Less_Mess_5803
  • HeyPrettyLadyMaam Your story is why I dread ordering over the phone, or anywhere I have to hand someone my card to swipe and they manually enter the total before swiping. Sonnys bbq drive thru does this and I hate ordering there cause I'm always scared they're gonna tip themselves for putting food in a bag. Its not tip worthy service. Your not a waitress in a drive thru, your a cashier. If I have extra and feel generous? Sure. But I hate that tips are now expected in a drive thru. Or any fast fo
    via u/HeyPrettyLadyMaam
  • Sacred-AF I had to hand my card to buy snacks for a movie once. The teen seemed distracted like they were in their phone while checking me out. Next thing I know my account is having withdrawals of $100 multiple days per week. I tracked it down to the ATM at that movie theater. Then it all clicked into place. That employee wasn't on social media or texting. They were recording my card number and me putting in my pin. The bank wouldn't do anything about it because my password was used to take it
    via u/Sacred-AF
  • BookkeeperNo1888 NTA. A $10 tip for a carryout sandwich? She likely wasn't fired because of your sandwich. She was likely fired because you weren't the first to complain or they audited her transactions when you noted your bill and they saw that was a "thing" for her. No way a $10 tip on a transaction that small was an accident.
    via u/BookkeeperNo1888
  • City_Girl_at_heart Even if I tipped 15% on a $17.55 sandwich, that's still only a $2.63 tip.
    via u/City_Girl_at_heart
  • definework To be fair the POS system might have $ tips (1, 5, 10) instead of % tips (10, 15, 20) and the poor dummy got confused in her attempted thievery.
    via u/definework
  • MsMo999 I kinda think similar she may have been adding $1 on her to-go's and getting away with it and didn't mean for $10 to be added and it was the one that got her caught. Still theft but not as brazen.
    via u/MsMo999
  • snowbunnysiren OP I'm wondering if this is common checking my bills for sure after this one gonna start
    via u/snowbunnysiren
  • epichuntarz That better he some good a pulled pork to be paying 17 each time for just the sandwich.
    via u/epichuntarz
  • ylandrum I was thinking the same thing: this server isn't the only one robbing customers at this establishment...
    via u/ylandrum

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tips fired manager tipping restaurant sandwich workplace restaurants waitress restaurant work workplace stories restaurant server tipping culture workplace story
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