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Food

This Extremely Drunk Canadian Tried to Tip $100,000 on a Sandwich

This weekend, a very intoxicated man in Ontario tried to leave a bar tip of nearly $100,000 on a $7 tab, but things didn't exactly go as planned. And then they got worse.
Hilary Pollack
Los Angeles, US
Photo via Flickr user Dave Dugdale

Everyone loves a generous tipper. The mysterious, somewhat-anonymous Tips for Jesus guy (allegedly former PayPal vice president Jack Selby) has been leaving a fervent wake of three- and four-digit tips in recent weeks, inspiring copycats that have even reached astronomical five-digit compensation on relatively small bills. It even made news recently when Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco left a $150 tip on a $208 restaurant tab.

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But the key to being a big tipper is to actually have the money that you intend to give to the service person of choice—these things seem to work out best for the hilariously rich, and IOU's are not quite as effective.

Unfortunately, that was a lesson that a very intoxicated 35-year-old Canadian man just had to learn for himself this past Sunday night in Barrie, Ontario.

The man, who hailed from nearby town Angus, enjoyed (probably quite sloppily) a late-night sandwich at a downtown Barrie bar for the fairly standard price of $7. But when it came time to leave gratuity, the wasted fellow thoughtfully tried to leave a tip of $98,931.87. Not so shockingly, the funds in his bank account were insufficient to cover it and his credit card was declined. Instead, his waitress received zilch.

And then—perhaps even more sadly—when the police arrived around 11:30 to help him sort out this tipping business, they determined that he was too plastered to traipse off into the night, and ended up hauling him off to the drunk tank. To cap off this evening of misery for this unfortunate would-be Robin Hood, things didn't end there. He was held for a bail hearing after police found that he was on release conditions from a previous incident and had a standing court order mandating that he not consume alcohol.

Despite good intentions, generosity doesn't always pay. Sometimes, when you shoot for a $100,000 tip, you don't land amongst the stars—you fall on your ass and end up in jail. Maybe he should have asked Jesus to spot him a few bucks.