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Imagine working a restaurant at a hospital. What would you do if someone came in wanting free food? Would you give it to them or refuse?

In this story, one employee wasn’t sure what to do, so he talked to his manager. He feels bad about how his manager handled the situation, and he’s wondering if talking to the manager was actually the wrong thing to do. Should he have handled the situation himself?

Keep reading for all the details.

A deaf person came in begging for food and money. How did I handle this?

This week at our restaurant we’re serving pasta bowls.

Our restaurant is located inside of a hospital.

Today a guy comes in and he’s deaf. I start off saying, “Hi what can I get for you today?”

He tries to tell me he’s deaf so I proceed to grab a pen and a piece of paper. On the paper I write, “Pasta Bowls?”

The guy actually wanted something else.

He writes, “Can I get $2.00 for the bus?”

I didn’t have $2.00 on me so I proceed to ask my coworker if she had $2.00?

She said no but she decided to go into one of our cabinets and grab two singles.

I gave the guy two singles for his bus fare and I thought that was all he wanted.

But the guy wanted something else too.

He then directed me to grab the paper again and he wrote on it, “Hungry”.

I originally thought he wanted food, but then he wanted money for the bus, and now he’s saying he’s hungry for food. I assumed he wanted free food since he was already asking for money to catch the bus.

I pointed my finger up at the guy to try to tell him “Hold on”.

He then starts muttering like how deaf people mutter.

He went to talk to his manager.

I went back into the office to let my managers know what was going on.

They told me, “You aren’t supposed to give anyone handouts. It’s against Hospital policy. Also what happens sometimes is when you give them something out they expect you to do it all of the time and then they can start inviting people they know, etc.”

The main manager told the other manager you could explain this policy to him or you can just call security.

He called security.

Let’s see how security handled it.

Before security got there, we were starting to get really busy and he began begging people in line.

Someone from security came in and told him to come on.

The manager did tell them over the phone that he was deaf.

Shortly thereafter after security got him, from all the way down the hall, the guy starts YELLING and GRUNTING REALLY LOUD where everyone in the restaurant could hear him. I believe he was getting upset and frustrated because he wanted something to eat, but security was trying to get him out.

I felt really bad at this point.

This is actually pretty sweet.

The guy comes back in with a security guard and he proceeds to point his finger at me.

I was getting worried at this point. I felt like the guy was mad at me.

The security guard stated that he will pay for his lunch.

My manager proceeds to serve him and the security guard paid for his meal.

He’s wondering if he should’ve handled it differently.

My coworker told me, “You should’ve just gave him a bowl to get him out of here or you should’ve just told him no from the beginning. You could’ve handled it yourself.”

I would’ve felt bad just telling him no altogether; especially considering he’s deaf. When he mentioned he’s hungry I didn’t really know what to do at that point which is why I went to my managers.

I really hope the guy didn’t think I was the one who called security since security came when I came out.

All in all could I have handled this better or differently?

He did what he thought he should do, and management made the final call. His coworker could’ve given the guy food if she had wanted to, but she didn’t.

Let’s see if Reddit thinks he should’ve done something differently.

This is good advice.

A man who is almost deaf weighs in.

This person praises him for being kind.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a burned-out employee who finds a way to ease his stress with an extended daily lunch.

Another person shares a story.

It’s nice to want to help, but it’s also important not to break the rules. Checking with the manager about how to handle the situation was the right thing to do. It was sweet of the security guard to pay for the man’s meal though.