The dine and dash has long been something that kids and teens would try and pull. Whether it was at a fast food restaurant or at a high-class diner, skipping out on a bill is not something that anybody should be doing. Not only is it unethical but it also leaves the business owner at a potential loss. Furthermore, it encourages business owners NOT to be nice to diners who may be a couple of dollars short.
But when these three guys fled a restaurant without a paying, the owner didn’t think he would ever hear from them again.
Little did he know that days later he would receive a handwritten letter with the bill paid in full.
It was in Middlesborough, England, where three men were dining at the Kilimandjaro restaurant on December 8th. Unfortunately, the men were unaware that the establishment they were at did not take any credit cards and only accepted cash.
So when the bill came, all three men were unable to fork over the cash that they did not have. So the men offered to go and find an ATM in order to withdraw the necessary amount of money.
But during their foray to find an ATM (they were tourists and new to the area) they realized that their last train back home was due to depart. So rather than looking for the cash machine, they hopped on the train and returned home.
The owner of the restaurant, Apollo Apollinaire, wasn’t too upset about the loss since the dinner wasn’t too expensive but he didn’t expect to hear from those guys again.
Instead, he tried to use the incident as a learning experience for him and his staff. During an interview with Gazette Live, Apollo said: ‘I put it down to a bad experience. Usually, people don’t walk out as a whole group for a cash machine.’
‘I just told my staff to next time make sure one of them stays or they leave some belongings until they come back. We accepted they would never come back and we had lost the money.’ But just a few days later, the establishment received a letter that was from the three diners. In it, they explained the reason for their ‘dash’ and also enclosed the 40 pounds within the letter.
The note read: ‘we exited Kilimandjaro to embark on a search for an A.T.M machine. On our search, it was apparent that the last train to our hometown was shortly about to depart. This diverted our attention away from finding an A.T.M machine and led to us running to the train station and just making our train. It was at this point, being too late, we realized our actions and decided to write this letter of apology with £40 enclosed in this envelope.’
The men then apologized for not being able to physically hand Apollo the apology letter but promised to give his restaurant a glowing, five-star review on TripAdvisor.
