Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for May 21, 2023

Had to happen sooner or later, even if it’s the last customer of the day.

The so-called suspended coffee : pay a coffee for a person who cannot afford it, is a very civilized practice in the Italian city of Naples.

i hope his karma is run over by his dogma!

I’d have thought he’d say, “In that case, give me the Super-Mega-Grande.”

When I’m the first one in the bar, I order drinks for everyone.

Nice goin rat

Rat did not disappoint us !

This pay ahead is nice, it happened to me and my daughter at McD’s a while ago!

While the paying it forward might be nice, it has to stop somewhere, or you might be the poor bloke who only wants a cheeseburger, fries and a coke but you are now obligated by peer pressure to pay for the family of 6 in the minivan behind you.

Took Rat to break this vicious cycle.

One night recently we decided to hit a drive-through for a late snack. Imagine our surprise when our order was paid for by the car in front of us. When I asked the fellow at the window, he said they appreciated that I turned my headlights off while waiting in line! (parking lights on) Funny thing is I’ve always done that. It was common courtesy back in the dark ages of my youth. Never thought of it as something special. Thanks, whoever you were.

Rat just doesn’t want to pay for anything. I can’t imagine why Pig hasn’t kicked him out.

None of what happened there is “karma.” People misuse that word. Arrgh! I know I know, your karma ran over my dogma. Whatever.

Remember chain letters? You copied the letter which included instructions and a list of people, sent $1 to the first person on the list, added your name to the bottom of a list and removed the person who sent you the original, and sent copies to ten friends. When your name got to the top of the list, you would receive millions of dollars in the mail; if you did not follow the instructions, you would have bad luck for years.

I call this “pay for the person after you” nonsense the Starbucks Chain Letter. And like the paper chain letters of old, it stops at me.

Karma schmarma.

As a cashier and McDs, I once had a pay-it-forward chain in the drive-thru last about four links before one guy demanded to know why the hell someone else paid for his coffee, and insisted there had to be some particular reason for it. I was so taken aback, I was unable to communicate with him the concept of kindness, and eventually told him to just ask the person ahead of him if he really wanted to know, because they hadn’t mentioned any specific reason to me.

Some people…

I don’t drink coffee, but I’m with rat on this. I think the concept of paying for a random stranger who may have no financial problems ridiculous. Now a person who has a financial need is a whole different matter.

At the coffee shops I’ve been to, you pay when you order, which means you have no idea what the next person is going to get. Seems too random for me.

However, I love the idea of buying a “ticket” to be claimed by someone in need. I’ve read of some restaurants doing the same thing.

What coffee shop has coffee for four bucks?

Sorry, but I don’t like this practice, especially at the drive through. If the person in back of me has a much larger order, I am breaking the chain.

When I get low on a Starbucks card, I give the rest of it to the guy in the car behind me

LMAO!

I don’t believe in karma, so that’s a pretty big limit in itself.

Rats are always rats!

I would have expected Rat to play the system for a free second coffee by starting the chain and getting back in line.

Is there something wrong with me? The first question on my mind in such a situation would be, “How much is the person behind me wanting to spend?” I mean, I’ll give five bucks, but suppose they want a sandwich and a brownie, too?

I think it’s a silly practice. I don’t go to fast foods/drive throughs so it likely won’t happen. If it did, I would say skip me, I’ll pay for my own. I might pick up the tab for some people I know or perhaps are clearly in need. But a random person? No.

That would be me lol

And yet, Social Security is going broke.

And our government keeps spending money they do not have. But, that’s a subject for another time.

The movie “Pay It Forward” had the absolute worst ending ever ,IMO.

Half the voters in Illinois…

The buck stops here. :)

“HA! FREE COFFFEE, B__CHES!!!” Rat’s a jerk, but we love him.

BTW, baristas hate the “pay it forward” thing. Makes it more likely to get orders wrong and slows things down. If you’re feeling generous, just leave a bigger tip.

I feel left out. I don’t drink coffee and don’t go to drive through restaurants. I can walk, so I get out and go inside. I know, it sounds weird, but I don’t like drive up windows.

I wouldn’t just pay for someone who can just as easily pay themselves, but I have taken beggars inside and bought them a meal.

I’ve seen this practice off and on here in my small town. I’ve yet to meet a Rat be a rat about it, fortunately. But I know they’re out there…

Life choices. Help a person in real need or buy coffee for someone who obviously can afford expensive coffee.

The true depths of Stephan’s avatar reviled…

I’m guessing Rat never pays for anybody.

Here’s an idea. Why not pay it forward in the comments section with some kindness, instead of the usual vitriol?

Karma already got Rat – it’s why he was born a rat.

It takes a rat’s Rat to break this chain-letter of Paying It Forward! Bravo, Objectivist Rat (a follower of that Ayn Rand amoral morality)…

You know, though, until somebody just accepts it, it’s kind of pointless, see? I’ve dreamed of having a special kind of theme park, I would call it a Musement park, and I’ve thought one of the features was that people who could afford it could pay double for some VIP treatment, and the extra would mostly go to a free drawing for people who couldn’t afford to come at all.

had this happen at a burrito joint, told em to put it in their tip jar

You can’t pay for the person behind you because you don’t know what they’re going to order

You can’t pay for the person behind you because you don’t know what they’re going to order