Do You Want My Cinnamon Roll?

A man at the table next to ours got up to leave and he said to me, “Sir, I hate to throw this away, would you like to have it?”

He pointed to his plate on which there was half of a large cinnamon roll.

At first I thought, perhaps, he was joking. But I looked at his face and he seemed quite sincere and quite serious. I said, “No thank you. I appreciate it. I’m trying not to eat too many carbs. Do you see my problem?” I pointed at my stomach, shaking my head and laughing.

He smiled and said, “Okay. I understand.” But he seemed disappointed.

Then he turned to a group of three women at another nearby table and offered the half a cinnamon roll to them.

They looked slightly puzzled but quickly said, “No, but thank you.”

So, he took his plate over to the trash area and threw it away.

I’m divided in my thinking about this incident. On the one hand I have never had a stranger in a restaurant offer me food from his plate. It strikes me as an unusual thing to do. Please understand, I don’t see it as bad or wrong. It’s just an uncommon offer. I think most people would assume that strangers in a restaurant would be very reluctant to eat off of their plate.

On the other hand, I really felt like the man was being sincere and honestly attempting to be generous and non-wasteful with this food.

I happened to notice the man while he was sitting at the table next to ours before all of this occurred and part of what I noticed was that he looked like a comedian I have seen on television a number of times. So, if it turns out I was being pranked on one of those hidden camera shows and you see it pop up on TV or the Internet one of these days, now you know the story behind the story.