She felt that something was off about those men, but she couldn't put her finger on it. They all finished their meals in under five minutes and asked for the bill.
When she returned to their table to collect the money, she realized that they had left the restaurant without paying. But one of the men left an envelope with a note inside that shocked her to the core.
Meet Apollo
Apollo worked in a busy restaurant that was located right by Mount Kilimandjaro. He had met many interesting people at work and stayed in touch with some of them.
But what he witnessed that day was unlike anything he had seen before. Those three men needed to pay for the consequences of their actions.
Three Men
As Apollo was loading the dishwasher in the bar area, he saw three men walk in and take a table by the window.
His coworker approached them with a big smile on her face and handed them the menus. What happened next left him at a loss for words...
The Bill
A few minutes later, the men asked for the bill, and Apollo's coworker handed it to them.
One of the men passed her a debit card. The waitress explained that they only accepted cash and pointed at an ATM across the street. But the men didn't take her response well.
Upset
Seeing that the waitress wasn't going to accept the card, the men got up from the table and walked out of the restaurant without saying anything. "Wait! You didn't pay!" she shouted, running behind them.
But it was too late.
Confused
The upset waitress approached Apollo and explained the situation to him.
"But what did they say to you?" he asked his coworker. "It doesn't matter now," she responded.
Refusal To Pay
Apollo couldn't understand how someone could be so upset over a payment method that they would simply refuse to pay.
Especially since the ATM was just around the corner.
A Letter
The three men never returned to pay for their meal, and the waitress had to cover their bill.
Then, a few days later, the restaurant management received a thick letter from the three men who had vanished without paying.
An Explanation
In their letter, the men explained that they only had a credit card that day. So when they found out that the restaurant didn't accept credit cards, they went out to get cash.
But that wasn't their only problem.
A Dilemma
They were searching for an ATM machine when they realized that the last train home was about to leave.
They couldn't afford to get a motel, so they had no choice but to board the train.
A Generous Tip
However, they still intended to pay the bill and spent the next few days collecting cash to add a generous tip for the waitress that served them that day.
They felt guilty for what they had done and wanted to make it up to her.
Kind Words
Even though they paid the bill and apologized for their behavior, the men still felt horrible.
In their letter, they also promised the restaurant management to write a good review on Trip Advisor and Yelp.
Honest People
The letter changed Apollo's view of people. He thought the men didn't want to pay for their meal with cash and fled the scene.
But it turned out that they didn't have another choice at the time.
Surprised
On that day, he wondered if the world really was a hopeless place, but that simple letter had fixed all of it.
Appolo said that he was “absolutely gobsmacked” after reading their letter. “It was really, really surprising and shocking when we first received the letter,” he said.
A Review
The three men kept their word and wrote a review on Trip Advisor and Yelp.
“I would highly recommend it to anyone in the area and would definitely return if I ever found myself in Middlesbrough again,” they wrote.