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There are certain situations where common sense should matter more than a few cents.

One customer thought that after a woman came into a fast-food restaurant struggling to speak after throat surgery.

She asked for a small cup of water, but the cashier refused to give her one without charging 27 cents.

Even after the woman kept asking and was noticeably struggling, the employee wouldn’t budge.

Worried the woman was choking, another customer finally stepped in and paid for it herself.

Read on to see what you would’ve done.

Employee/cashier at a fast food restaurant refused a nearly choking woman a glass of water.

I have had many customer-facing jobs in the past, and most of my family has worked in food service at every level, so I am usually on the side of the employee. But not this time.

On this day, I was taking my daughter to a fast food place that has the same name as a movie about a fast-running blue hedgehog.

She wasn’t sure what she wanted, as we don’t go there often, so instead of using the car hops or takeout window, we parked and went inside to get a better look at the menu.

As she was ordering, a nicely dressed woman came up asking for water.

I’m placing my order when a woman walks in, and she tries to say, “Excuse me, may I have a glass of water?”

The woman was having trouble speaking—she was more than rasping. She pointed to her throat, where you could clearly see a fairly fresh scar, and squeaked out, “Surgery.”

The cashier said to her that a glass of water costs 27¢. The woman looked half shocked and half about to cry and said, “Water, please.”

I glanced at this woman, and I don’t know what her story was, but she had no purse on her, nor did she have the type of pants that looked like they had pockets. In fact, she was by far the best-dressed person in the place—certainly not homeless—but no purse nonetheless.

Frustrated, she offered to pay for the water.

She tried again, “Please, just a cup of water,” she croaked out.

The cashier was unmoved, “A cup of water costs twenty-seven cents.”

I said, “For goodness’ sake! Give the poor woman a glass of water! I’ll pay the 27¢!”

The nasty cashier didn’t even move until I had fished out the coins from my change purse, and she rang it up. Only then did she go into the back and bring out a plastic cup of water. Small. 6 or 8 ounces, tops.

Now, she wants to file a report with corporate but isn’t sure if she should or not.

The woman looked like she was going to cry as she tried to thank me.

She tried to explain that she recently had throat surgery, but I said not to worry about it and don’t try to talk. She was very grateful.

I am livid at the callousness of the employee. I don’t care about “policy” at that point. The poor woman was choking.

I plan to go to the website to leave feedback or find out if there is an email address for corporate. I saved my receipt to pinpoint the exact store, time, and cash register/cashier number. Am I wrong to do this? Or was the cashier just following instructions and shouldn’t make exceptions? Please let me know your thoughts before I write the letter.

Wow! What was that cashier thinking?

Let’s see if the readers over at Reddit have ever seen anything like this happen before.

According to this comment, the cashier was evil.

This actually could be true.

For this person, it’s the policy that needs to be complained about.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a researcher who complained about being excluded from a trip only to watch the university cancel the whole thing.

Yes, some managers would do that.

It’s possible the cashier was worried about breaking a rule and getting in trouble.

But at some point, common sense should kick in when someone clearly needs help.

What if that had been her mother, grandmother, or someone else she cared about standing there struggling?

Sometimes, doing the right thing should matter more than 27 cents.