If it matters, this was at Lone Star. And vibe with the waiter throughout the dinner had been very positive.

1. Friend and I finished dinner.
2. The waiter dropped off the bill.
3. It was $52.79.
4. We put $63 in cash inside. (3 twenties, 3 ones.)
5. The waiter brought the bill back with a five, two ones, and a dime. (This seems to be what the change would be if we had just given him $60?)
6. I signaled for him to come over and said, “Hey, I’m really confused. I put $63 in here—that was all for you. You brought this back with the change as if we had given you $60? Did you get the other three dollars?”
7. He said, “Yeah, I’m sorry, I already put that in the register. We just put all of that in the register until the end of the night, but I can bring it back to you.”
8. I said, “What? No, I did not want to get any money back. I was just confused by this partial change I received and wanted to make sure you were getting your full tip. I was trying to tip you ten dollars and twenty-one cents.”
9. He said, “Okay, I’m sorry about that. I can just bring you back all of your change. I didn’t mean to do anything wrong.”
10. I said, “No, you didn’t do anything wrong. I put $63 inside. I did not want any of this back. The extra money was your tip. I received some of the extra money back as change and was confused. I wanted to make sure you got your full tip.”
11. He said, “Oh okay, sorry about that. So what do you want to do?”
12. I said, “I want you to take back this change…”
13. He said, “Okay, thank you,” gave me a weird/annoyed look, and walked away.

Topics: food, restaurants, eating, wtf, dining, etiquette, tipping, tips, servers, service, confusion, weird, waiters, awkward, service industry