In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10 year old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.
‘How much is an ice cream sundae?’
’50 cents,’ replied the waitress.
The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied a number of coins in it.
‘How much is a dish of plain ice cream?’ he inquired. Some people were now waiting for a table and the waitress was a bit impatient.
’35 cents,’ she said brusquely.
The little boy again counted the coins. ‘I’ll have the plain ice cream,’ he said.
The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and departed.
When the waitress came back, she began wiping down the table and then swallowed hard at what she saw.
There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were 15 cents – her tip.
I try to understand what the title has to do with the story but I can't figure it out. Neither what exactly the message if it comes to values, principles we live by is. I would say "the customer is king" pays but that's not why the waitress received a tip. The child did it out of habit, been raised this way but those who raised him forgot that good behavior should be rewarded not the opposite.
I leave it to the admin to approve this because of the list of links the OC checker showed me. Links which suggest this story is told a few times before elsewhere.