NY waiter gets $1,000 tip, is told to ‘pay it forward’

When I waited tables, I rejoiced any time I got a 20 percent tip — let alone one that exceeded that.

I literally can’t imagine what I would do if some benevolent patron left me a $1,000 tip.

I guess I’d have to ask Michael Shafts, a waiter at The Ginger Man, a restaurant and wine bar in Albany, N.Y.

Last Wednesday, Shafts was working a typical night at the restaurant when a husband and wife came in.

According to ABC News, before leaving in a limo, the man left a $1,000 tip on the receipt with the note, “Pay it forward. My birthday present to me!” (Along with a miscalculated total. The diner was clearly in jovial spirits.)

The instruction to “pay it forward” left Shafts a little perplexed, but when he came into work on the following Saturday night, he had envelopes of money for everyone who worked at The Ginger Man that fateful Wednesday night.