Restaurant Owner Takes Stack of Bills From Tip Jar—Then Spots Shocking Note

Newsweek

2 days ago

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
A restaurant owner was checking the tip jar after a shift when he found something completely unexpected in between the bills.
Chris, 27, owns the Jade Hibachi restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina, and recently served a man who he described as appearing "normal looking" and "polite."
At the end of his meal, the man tipped generously, Chris told Newsweek, as he "grabbed all the one-dollar bills out of his wallet" and placed them in the tip jar.
But when Chris checked on it later, he found a hidden note "in between the bills."
"I don't think he meant to give it to me," he said. "At first I thought it was meant for me, but it definitely seems like it was an accident."
Chris shared the note to Reddit's r/Weird sub on May 28: a handwritten message, with one phrase repeated 19 times: "You aren't going to prison."
His wife, Jess, who also works at the restaurant, told Newsweek: "He was a normal customer, or seemed to be! We get a lot of college students, so he might have been one too.
"We get little sweet notes from customers when they tip us on DoorDash, but we've never gotten anything as weird as this! We're in downtown Charleston, we see fights and sirens and robberies and TV shows being filmed, but nothing ever like this."
Chris' post racked up more than 46,000 upvotes, as Reddit users shared their thoughts and theories, along with a few light-hearted jokes.
"Someone's going to prison," one wrote, as another rebuffed: "The note was the only thing keeping them out of prison. Now [Chris] has the note. Original owner 100% going to prison now."
One wondered if it could be a "manifestation note" for the writer to get something they're hoping for, which another agreed: "It's a form of manifestation like law of attraction to write down your intentions on paper over and over again like this. He very well may not be going to prison."
"Seems like good news to me," another pointed out. "Who doesn't like being told that they're not going to prison?"
And one user shared their own story: "I wrote one of these and still have a copy of it now 18 months after being out. I wrote in more detail and it's just for me. Whenever I look at it, it reminds me how far I've come since feeling like that and kinda brightens my mood a little."
Stock image of a tip jar filled with notes.
Stock image of a tip jar filled with notes.
MZiello/Getty Images
Chris told Newsweek that he himself had a few different theories, including that the note writer may have done "something bad, and he's hyper-focusing on getting caught," or that he's "currently going through a trial or an investigation, and he's very worried about it."
He also agreed with some of the Redditors' comments, that it could be a "coping mechanism", or "maybe he's just manifesting, writing down a list of his wishes.
"Perhaps he left it in the tip jar on purpose, hoping the positive energy of tipping would work in his favor in terms of manifesting."
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