Is leaving 5p after a meal meant as an insult or just odd behaviour?

Posted by FlyAway5445@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 88 comments

When I was a teenager, I worked as a waiter and also in my early adulthood. There’s one incident that still confuses me to this day. There was a table of two people I served. When they paid, they covered the full bill and left a 5p coin in the receipt holder on the table. To this day, I still don’t understand it. Was it meant as a “f you” for bad service (which I don’t think it was because I gave good service, though I’m not the judge of that), or was it just meant to be spare change? Either then, 5p isn’t really “a bit of change”. I never expected tips anyway. I treated everyone the same, especially since we weren’t even allowed to keep the full tip where I worked. So I didn’t care at all about the tip. It was also a casual restaurant in a well-off area. It still makes me laugh now, but why would someone leave 5p? Is there more to it? I just don’t understand the logic behind it. I’m grateful either way, but it still felt a bit off.