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Food

Here's What Happens When Splitting the Dinner Bill with Your Friends Goes Horribly Wrong

In the era of Venmo, is it really necessary to knock someone unconscious for handling your group's dinner bill in a way you disagree with?

Getting a large group of friends together to go out to dinner is a feat unto itself, but the real challenge comes when the check arrives. Your waiter or waitress has been dreading this moment, expecting an Excel-worthy breakdown of the bill, and by the end of it, there will almost certainly be a web of debt to be settled on Venmo.

But while you're busy arguing over who had what to drink and who needs to put in extra for tax or tip, over in China, one man knocked out his friend for paying the bill for the whole party, a perceived egregious insult to the man who was not afforded the honour of treating the group to dinner.

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According to Shanghaiist, the incident occurred on October 25 after some friends in Guangzhou decided to get late-night eats after going out to a bar. When the bill came, the group engaged in the Chinese custom of competing to pay for the check—the person who pays gains social cred.

A 25-year-old named Zhong won the opportunity to pay for his friends' dinners, which really pissed off his bud, a 22-year-old named Ou. Believing he had "lost face" in front of his peers, Ou went after Zhong and ultimately knocked him out on the sidewalk when the group walked outside the restaurant around 5 AM.

Zhong was still in the hospital the next night, while Ou was arrested. Apparently the outcome wasn't all that bad, though—apparently, a similar fight a couple years back led to one man knocking over a hot pot, leading to extensive burns for his dining companion. The victim, named Zhang, ultimately died.

READ MORE: A Woman Chugged an Entire Bottle of Cognac Rather than Give It to Airport Security

There are a couple takeaways from this. One, freeloaders could prosper in China. Two, there's the matter of honour versus a criminal record.

And lastly, as far as Zhong and Ou are concerned, one has the feeling that when this is all over, neither will be particularly eager to pick up the check should they ever dine together again.