Paradox and Inspiration 165: Big Trivia at McDonalds' Napkins

It's been a while since I last wrote in this blog. Time has been against me.

Most Saturday afternoons, my husband and younger daughter would stop by at Bedok Central to have tea around one of the tables outside McDonalds and at the same time wait for my older daughter to finish her ballet class at a nearby community center.

Today an old man (probably in his sixties), bespectacled and neatly dressed in a beige Polo shirt and office pants, caught our eyes. He was having a burger meal alone at a table inside the restaurant about five to six meters away from the self-help napkins and sauces station. Through the glass panel, we could clearly see him walking to the napkin station every few minutes. Furtively he would scan left and right to make sure no one was looking before pulling out a stack of napkins, return to his seat and then stuff the napkins into a white plastic bag.

Being just me, I was totally disgusted by what the old man did. Where had his dignity gone to at that age? Despite being told by my husband to mind my own business, twice I walked into the restaurant and told the staff at the cashier about what I saw, but each time, I was told that these customers existed everyday and nothing could be, not even if they brought the whole bag of napkins home. Reason? Because they were customers. It was unbelievable that McDonalds would to turn a blind eye to this, there was not even an attempt to gently tell the old man not to do that.

By the time the old man had finished his meal, he had gone to the napkin stations umpteen times, and his plastic bag was full. As he cleared the table, took all his belongings with him and headed towards the napkin station for the last time, I stood up, approached him, and pointing to his plastic bag, I said softly to him, "It's enough, you have taken a lot already." He looked at me, dumbfounded but as I walked out and returned to my table outside the restaurant, his stunned look turned into a long furious glare. Much to my relief, he didn't run out of the restaurant to confront me. Eventually he sauntered off, probably after seeing that my husband looked much taller and stronger than him...

My husband said it wasn't our restaurant and questioned why I should care when McDonalds did not even care. So, was I too much of a busybody?