This Diner Charges Extra For ‘Stupid Questions’, Please Clap

I truly believe this world would be a little bit off if everyone had to work in the service industry once in their lifetime. There are few things that make you appreciate kindness and manners and patience in people than having to deal with people who lack those qualities day after day. As well as experiencing the most curmudgeonly of humankind, those who work in bars and restaurants also get to field a lot of questions that are… well… just kinda dumb. I mean, we all have our days where we’re not at our sharpest, but man, some of the questions and complaints I listened to when I managed a bar were truly, truly baffling. I can’t even tell you how many times folks would stand right in front of the “please seat yourself” sign and ask, “So do we just seat ourselves?” Or, “It says Happy Hour includes wine and beer, so does that mean highballs are half-priced too?” One time someone asked me if the shrimp salad has shrimp in it.

Come on, man!!

It can be difficult to answer these kinds of questions with a straight face, but it looks like a restaurant in Colorado has found a pretty great solution.

A ‘stupid question’ charge.

Reddit

Tom’s Diner in Colorado is a noted “local favorite” and now, thanks to this Reddit post showing one of their receipts, it’s the definite favorite among service industry workers around the world as well. According to an interview in TODAY Food with the general manager of Tom’s Diner, Hunter Landry, this cheeky upcharge is usually taken pretty well by customers. ‘Stupid Questions’ is even listed as a side dish on the menu, and it has been for twenty years, so you can’t say they didn’t warn you!

Apparently the charge for asking a dumb question was $0.48, but has since been reduced to $0.38 — which, honestly, is way too low a price. We should all consider ourselves lucky.