The reaction most common when you’re waiting for what feels like forever for your meal at a restaurant is, obviously, annoyance. You’re hungry, you’re angry, you’re hangry and you just want to shove every available food item in your mouth as soon as possible. While this kind of experience often leads to the temptation to be snippy towards the staff, one couple who had to wait for more than an hour for their entrees to arrive took another, kinder approach toward their overwhelmed server.

The Iowa couple were out for dinner on their six-year wedding anniversary and had to cool their heels for an extended period of time, reports the New York Daily News.

But seeing that their server had to cover not only 12 tables but the bar customers as well on a night when the restaurant was extremely understaffed, they decided to do something nice instead of get cranky.

Writing, “We’ve both been in your shoes. Paying it forward,” on the receipt, the couple added a $100 tip to their $66.55 bill.

“People all around us were making fun of the restaurant & how bad the service was. Yeah, it was pretty terrible. But, it was very obvious that the issue was being short staffed, not the server,” the wife wrote on her Facebook page with a photo of the receipt.

And she wasn’t trying to brag about the good deed — she says, she just wants others to think more compassionately as well.

“I’m just sharing this as a friendly reminder to think of the entire situation, before you judge,” she wrote. “And always always always remember where you came from.”

Iowa couple leaves $100 tip to encourage overwhelmed waiter [New York Daily News]

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