A long day of hard work can leave a person looking a little rough.

That was certainly true for this teenager and his dad after spending hours working in crawl spaces on a job site.

By lunchtime, they were covered in dirt and more interested in finding something good to eat than worrying about how they looked.

So, they stopped at a nearby fast-food restaurant, expecting to grab a quick meal and get back to work.

However, one cashier took one look at them and became convinced she was helping a homeless father and son enjoy a rare treat.

Read on to see what happened when the son figured out what she was doing.

Cashier assumes my dad and I are dirty homeless people, come to Bask in the Glory that is Eat-Mor-Chikin.

So when I was 16, I helped my dad a lot with radon mitigation jobs.

For those of you in the South, radon is a gas quite common up North that gives you lung cancer. If you have it seeping into your house, you get a radon mitigation system installed, which usually requires me completely sealing up your crawl space, while my dad rigs up the pipes and wires the fan to suck all that bad gas out of your house and shoot it up into the sky.

That’s a little ELI5 but you get the idea. You don’t wear nice clothes because you’re going to get dirty. At the time, we lived in the South of the North. Some of you know what state that is…

His dad told him to order whatever he wanted.

So we’re in the middle of this massive job. One of the largest crawl spaces I’ve ever had to mess with, and we decide that homemade PB&J sandwiches just aren’t going to cut it. So let’s take a decent lunch break and go get some *Eat-Mor-Chikin* because it was close.

We jump in the truck, head to the restaurant, park, and walk inside. As soon as we enter, I noticed the cashier girl just kind of very intently watching us approach.

Girl: Hello there! How are y’all doin’ on this blessed day?

Dad (Oblivious): We’re good. I’ll have a (whatever) and whatever he wants. (Pointing to me).

Then, the lady started laying it on real thick.

Girl (almost choking up): Oh! Oh is this your son? Well bless your heart, you poor thing. You know what? I do think I have a buy one get one coupon around here, yes I do! But really, you just order whatever you want to, ok?

Me: Um, ok… I want the (whatever. The big one, I was 16 and hungry).

Girl: You got it sugar! How about I make that a large for free? I have another coupon right here!

Me: Wow, yeah. Thanks.

His dad still doesn’t realize what’s going on.

My dad is still completely unaware at this point, but I know exactly what is going on. She thinks we are “dirty homeless hobos,” here to splurge on some Chikin!

So Dad finishes up the order and pays with cash that he pulls out of his pocket, because of course he does, we get our cups and go wait for our order to be called. But as we’re walking away, she says one last thing.

Girl: That’ll be up soon, guys! And just so ya know, I’ma pray for y’all to get back on your feet just as soon as can be!

He couldn’t help but smile about it.

And I couldn’t help but smile big and reply, “Well thanks! That’ll be pretty soon, since we’ll have this job finished in about 4 more hours. But I’m definitely looking forward to the shower tonight and whatever my Mom made for dinner!”

Realizing we were actually just working some kinda dirty job and weren’t a homeless dad and son coming in off the street to bask in the glory that was Eat-Mor-Chikin, the check out girl’s expression basically just changed to one of… bitter disappointment. Like, she would have preferred it if we were Homeless.

Sorry to let you down, hun! Better luck judging the next stranger that walks in. But thanks for the free coupons!!!

Wow! Serves her right for jumping to conclusions.

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Let’s check out what the people over at Reddit think about it.

Well, that’s pretty rude.

Here’s someone just focused on the restaurant.

This person feels bad for the cashier.

A lot of people do this.

This story is a perfect example of why people shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

The cashier took one look at a father and son covered in dirt and decided she knew their entire situation.

To her credit, she seemed to have good intentions, but good intentions don’t make assumptions accurate.

Fortunately, everyone was able to laugh about it in the end.

And hey, the father and son got a good meal and a story they’ve probably been telling for years. So, it worked out.

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