Man's Friends Suggest He Pay Their Entire Dinner Bill Since He 'Does Better' Financially Than Them
The man suggested splitting the bill, but some protested, claiming financial constraints.
DGLimages, BluePheonix / Shutterstock After a man went out to dinner with an old friend and a few others who tagged along, he was perplexed when the bill arrived and the majority of the group expected him to cover it.
Their reasoning was even more baffling.
The man’s friend group expected him to cover their entire meal since he was ‘clearly doing better’ financially than the rest of them.
Sharing his story to the subreddit, r/AITA, the man revealed that he was visiting his birth country on holiday and decided to reach out to an old friend and meet up for dinner.
His friend asked if he could bring a couple of friends, and the man graciously accepted his request. “I suggested the restaurant, and everyone was fine with the location,” the man wrote. “We got there and everyone started ordering and ordering, cocktails, lobster, sushi.”
The man claimed that everyone was enjoying themselves and was having a nice conversation when the check arrived at the table. The bill totaled 770€, which is equivalent to $838 in U.S. dollars.
Photo: SeventyFour / Shutterstock
"I told my friend we should all split evenly, he was cool with it," the man shared. However, not everyone in the group was on board with the decision. “The other guy said he was kind of broke right now and could only spend 25€ despite eating close to 100€ worth of food or more. I knew things were about to go south,” he wrote.
“Two of the women were on their phones silent and disengaged, and the other woman had the audacity to openly and confidently suggest I be a gentleman and cover the bill as ‘You are clearly doing better.’”
When the man asked the woman why she had assumed that his financial situation was superior to the rest of the group’s, she told him that based on his social media, it appeared as if he was wealthy. “Mind you, all I have on my Instagram are pics of holidays and business-related stuff. No fast cars or any of that,” he clarified.
Photo: macniak / Canva Pro
Still, the women insisted that they did not expect to have to pay for their meals. “I told them that I didn't know them and that this was not a date,” the man wrote. “I was getting upset at the entitlement and asked my friend whether he told them anything pointing towards me paying, he said he didn't and that each of them always pays for their own things.”
Since it was the man’s friend’s friends who were protesting, the man suggested that he be the one to deal with them.
A back-and-forth conversation occurred between the parties, with the rest of the group claiming that it was “not fair” and that the bill was “too expensive” for them to split. “It was fair when they were ordering like they had a money fountain clearly, but not when it was time to pay,” the man pointed out.
Eventually, he grew fed up and informed the rest of the table that now instead of splitting the bill, he would be covering only his portion.
Aside from the man’s friend, none of them had enough money to pay for their meals and were scrambling to find alternative payment methods.
“I felt a little bad as they were trying to figure out how to pay, but I ultimately didn't and instead, I ended up being petty and giving a big tip to the waiter in front of them,” the man confessed. “Had they not been entitled about it and said it before agreeing to come, I would have at least considered it. But not like this.”
The man asked if he was in the wrong and if he should have just covered their meals as they did not have enough money.
The majority of people sided with the man, agreeing that the group had no right to expect him to pay because they assumed his wealth.
“You asked your friend to JOIN you for dinner, and he asked to bring multiple friends, and you agreed. You never said you were taking them all out or treating anyone to dinner,” one Redditor noted. “You're all adults, and if they were short on cash, they shouldn't have agreed to the restaurant or ordered so much food. They could have asked before ordering like you mentioned, as well.”
“That’s a huge amount of money! No way on earth any reasonable human being would expect someone they’ve never met before to pay for that. They can fix their own mistake,” another user commented. “Those were entitled, selfish, and rude people and they got what they deserved,” another user wrote.
It is an unspoken rule to always bring your own money when going out to dinner, even if you are under the impression that someone else in your party will cover your meal.
Even if you are on a date or your family offers to bring you out to eat, it is common courtesy to at least offer to cover your portion of the meal, especially if it is a hefty amount.
No matter how wealthy another one of your dinner guests may be, they should never be obligated to cover the entire party. Chances are, they worked hard to get where they are, and they definitely did not make it from paying for everyone else’s meals.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.