Tipping is a controversial subject. It seems everywhere we go we encounter tip jars and are presented the opportunity to add a tip to services that seem routine. But from the other side, service workers are often paid less than minimum wage because their tips are calculated as part of their salary. Now and then, though, a customer leaves a tip so insanely generous, it can change a hard-working employee’s life. Here are some of the largest tips we’ve found online. What’s the biggest tip you’ve ever received, or left for someone else?

24/7 Wall St. Insights

• Customers have left large tips not only in cash but in other kinds of valuable gifts. 
• Sometimes these acts of charity are self-serving ways to build fame, but they can still make a huge difference for a struggling worker.
• Also: Discover “The Next NVIDIA

Who Do We Tip?

Tipping works differently around the world so it’s important to know the local customs. In the United States, we generally tip service workers like restaurant servers, bartenders, delivery people, hotel staff, valet attendants, hairdressers, tattoo artists, dog groomers, or movers. Generally speaking, tipping is for situations where someone is not well-paid and provides a personal service.

It’s worth remembering that in some jobs, pay is artificially low because tips are considered part of the employee’s salary. It often happens that working class people are better tippers, on a percentage basis, because they understand the struggle of people who are struggling financially to put themselves through college, support their families, or get established in a new place. 

How Much Do We Tip?

In the United States, tipping 15-20% of the bill is standard, but the tip might be higher for exceptional service, during a holiday season when customers are feeling generous, or when a customer is particularly magnanimous. And since the rise of social media, some internet influencers record themselves giving astounding tips to record unsuspecting workers’ reactions . . . and win clicks, likes, and subscribers for themselves.

Now here are some of the most legendary tips we know of.

18. $900 Tip From David Beckham for Drinks

Soccer legend David Beckham visited Joxer Daily’s Pub in Culver City, California with some of his teammates from LA Galaxy. With just a $100 bar tab, he just added a zero to the end to make his bill $1,000, including a $900 tip. 

17. $1,000 For a Stolen Tip Jar

YouTuber BigDaws ordered food at multiple fast food restaurants, stole the tip jar in front of bewildered and sometimes irate workers, then returned them with an additional $1,000. 

16. $1000 From Charlie Sheen Added to 20-cent Tip

In 2014 NFL running back LeSean “Shady” McCoy, who had a $45 million contract, tipped a waiter in Philadelphia 20 cents on a $61.76 bill and spoke abusively to the wait staff. Actor Charlie Sheen stepped into the fray on Twitter and upped McCoy’s tip by $1,000, tweeting, “Just wanna help.”

15. $1,075 to Bereaved Waitress

Khadijah Muhammad was working extra shifts at Cheddar’s restaurant in Knoxville, TN in 2014. It was a hard time for her; her mother had recently died and she didn’t have money to pay the electric bill. She wasn’t expecting a tip of any more than $5 or so for a customer’s bill of $29.30. Instead, she got $1,075 with a note that said simply, “God bless!”

14. $1,268.86 From College Students

A group of students at Indiana Wesleyan University ordered two Dominos pizzas for $12.50. To his bewilderment, the delivery guy was ushered onto the stage of the campus chapel in front of 3,000 applauding students and awarded $1,268,86 in cash, $70 in gift cards, and a pile of handwritten notes of thanks and encouragement from the students. The message of the chapel speaker that day was on the virtue of giving. 

13. $2,000 Tips from Mystery Woman . . . 4 times!

In 2023, an unknown woman who came to be known as the “Angel Tipper” ordered an omelet breakfast at Dalrock Diner in Rowlett, Texas, a Dallas suburb. The waitress was stunned to get a whopping $2,000 tip! But the lady got hungry again, so for lunch she dropped by Senaida’s Mexican Kitchen right across the street and left another $2,000 tip for a plate of chicken nachos. Server Gysel Martinez used the money for a plane ticket to see her dad, who she hadn’t been able to visit in 2 years. Two days later, the mystery tipper went back to Dalrock Diner and ordered an omelet, hash browns, and water and left another $2,000 for a different server. When word got out, a restaurant in Royce City, 20 miles away, said the same thing had happened there. The food must be pretty good around Dallas!

12. $4,000 From Johnny Depp

In 2009 while filming Public Enemies, actor Johnny Depp left a $4,000 tip for waiter Mohammad Sekhani at Gibsons Steakhouse in Chicago. And just getting to serve Johnny Depp is a pretty big tip in itself, amiright?

11. $5,000 For $26.95 in Italian Food

Greg Rubar got a 19,000% tip as a server at an Italian restaurant named D’Amico’s in Houston. A couple of his regular customers heard his family’s car was lost in a flood and left a $5,000 tip for their $26.95 bill so he could buy another one.

10. $7,000 Mini-Gold Bars

Legendary YouTuber Mr. Beast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, left $7,000 miniature gold bars for several servers, and even gave one to a pizza delivery guy caught in a traffic jam next to him! Some of them didn’t seem sure it was real. Hopefully they had them appraised and didn’t just give them to their kids to play with. 

9. $10,000 Cash for Water

Mr. Beast ordered water at a hot dog place in Greenville, N.C. and left a $10,000 tip with a note reading “waters were great!” Although she describes herself as a “broke college student” studying to be a nurse, the waitress only kept $800 for herself and divided the rest between the restaurant’s other 80+ employees!

8. $12,000 Suspicious Cash in a Box

In 2012 Stacy Knutson, a server at Fryn’ Pan Family Restaurant in Minnesota got a tip of $12,000 in cash, in a box. If that sounds suspicious to you, it did to police, too, who seized it as part of an investigation into a crime involving drugs. Fortunately, later they decided to return it to Stacy, a mother of 5, who could definitely use it. 

7. $18,200 For a Birthday Meal

At a fine dining restaurant in Texas, someone celebrated their 50th birthday in style, to the tune of $33,557.50. The gratuity added by the establishment to the bill was $6,200, but that just wasn’t enough for the customers. They added an additional $12,000 for a total tip of $18,200, and a bill of $51,757.50. The server kept $10,000 and split the rest with his coworkers. 

6. $43,340 Dodge Durango

The biggest tip Waffle House server Tonya Rhinehart ever got was a 2013 Dodge Durango worth $43,340 new. One of her regulars ordered his usual: two eggs over medium, grits, and a biscuit. And as usual, she brought him two glasses of iced tea because she knew he always wanted a refill. Then he gave her the keys to her new vehicle and just asked that she go on treating him as good as she always did. Now that’s good service!

5. $92,350 Canadian Lottery Ticket

In 1995 John Steele left a lottery ticket for his waitress in Toronto and they agreed to share it if it won. It turned out to fetch the American equivalent of $184,700, leaving them each $92,350.

4. $100,000 Furnished House For the Pizza Guy

Mr. Beast ordered a Domino’s pizza, offered the delivery driver several thousand dollars to help pick out and deliver furniture, electronics, and toys to a house for a “friend,” then surprised him by letting him know he was the friend and handing over the keys to a home fully-furnished with the things he picked out. It cut down this super-humble, super-worthy guy’s commute to work from 1 hour to just 15 minutes and provided a safe, clean, secure home for his family, including a three-year-old daughter. 

3. $130,000 Mortgage Pay-Off for Spilled Drink

Kerry Packer was the richest man in Australia, worth an estimated $6.5 billion. Once he accidentally bumped a cocktail waitress and made her drop a tray of drinks. After apologizing, he asked for her name and address. And then paid off her mortgage of $130,000! 

2. $150,000 Tips from Ben Affleck, Until J.Lo Shut Him Down

Ben Affleck was in the habit of giving tips as large as $150,000 after big wins at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas. When he got engaged to Jennifer Lopez, that came to a crashing stop, though. During a 2002 Thanksgiving Vegas trip, Ben tried to tip a baccarat dealer with a $5,000 chip, only to have Jennifer exclaim “No!” snatch it back, and exchange it for three $100 chips. Which earned J.L0 the local nickname “Pay Low.”

1. $3,000,000 Share of a Lottery Ticket

In a Manhattan suburb in 1984, waitress Phyllis Penzo got a lottery ticket as a tip. It won, big time, to the tune of $6 million! Phyllis split the winnings with police detective Robert Cunningham, who had given her the ticket. Their story became the plot of the Nicholas Cage movie It Could Happen to You.

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