Customer Paid for Meal With Bad Check 13 Years Ago. Then Pizza Parlor Owner Opens This Letter...

A pizza parlor customer had built up 13 years worth of guilt.

Back in 2002, the customer paid for a meal at the shop with a bad check. Then 13 years later, the customer finally fessed up in a letter mailed to the pizza parlor owner last month.

The anonymous letter writer claimed poverty and a hungry child at home as context for the deed — but also shared something else:

"I think of this often and I am incredibly ashamed and embarrassed at my behavior. I have visited your store several times in the last few years and have always wanted to confess and ask you to forgive me, but I have not been able to summon up the courage, so I just eat my pizza and leave."

And for the grande finale, the letter writer — now on firmer financial footing — enclosed a money order for $54.39, which includes 8 percent interest compounded since 2002 on the assumed $20 food bill:

Image source: Reddit

After receiving the letter, the pizza parlor owner posted a photo of it on Reddit, simply commenting, "I'm speechless."

"I feel bad for the poor guy," the pizza parlor owner commented. "I probably forgot about him when I wrote the check off as a loss and never gave him another thought. This poor dude has been dwelling on this for over a decade. If I find out who he is I'm going to have a beer with him, I'm buying."

The pizza parlor owner added that "the guy didn't have to do anything, this is a big showing of his character. To include interest was really generous."

One commenter noted that the story of after-the-fact honesty made the day better: "Thank you for sharing this, it added a real spring to my step today. I like being reminded that really good people truly exist. Somedays it's a tough thing to hang onto."

(H/T: Reddit)

—

Follow Dave Urbanski (@DaveVUrbanski) on Twitter