Dear Annie: Tip stolen

Dear Annie: I had a problem that I have not seen in your column. My family and I were out of town and having lunch at a lovely botanical garden in a nearby city. A sweet young waitress brought some of our orders and was assigned to our table, although she did not take our orders, as they have a cafeteria-like setup.

We still put down a cash tip with the check, but another girl swooped in to grab it up mere seconds after we put it on the table. I was startled but figured the staff share tips, so I thought it was all right. Our waitress came by, and for a second, she seemed disappointed, which gave me misgivings, but I thought it would be OK.

After we returned home, I realized that the other girl had stolen the tip for our waitress and our waitress thought we had stiffed her. I didn’t know what to do but eventually called and spoke with the manager to tell him of our experience. Apparently, this had happened before. This girl is stealing others’ tips, and those servers think they are being punished for some imaginary service issue.

I don’t know whether our waitress still works there, and we are not likely to be in that restaurant any time soon, so we cannot make this up to her. I did, however, want to warn both customers and servers that this can happen. If you leave a cash tip, hand it to your server, or use a card and add it to your bill. – Tip Went Astray

Dear Tip Went Astray: What a shame. Co-workers should watch one another’s back, not stab one another in the back. I’ve never heard of this happening, and I hope that it’s a rare occurrence. But your warning is worthwhile all the same.