‘What grade was this in again?’: Bar turns into an elementary school yard as server and customer battle it out over a stolen pen

If you’ve never waited tables, you may not understand the near-sacred positions our pens hold in our daily lives.

The pens that decorate your server’s apron are a lifeline, an identity, a vital resource, and each and every server out there — don’t you even try to lie — has a favorite. Whether due to its smooth, never-failing quality, its color, or its unique shape, one pen reigns supreme in the eyes of every waiter or waitress out there, and we’d rather lose our jobs than lose that pen.

TikTok user Kristina Withers is clearly among the pen-exalting masses of waitstaff out there, something she made clear in a captivating upload to her page. In it, she explains how the theft of her favorite pen — a charmingly feminine item with a faux gem on top — nearly sent her over the edge, and all thanks to a shockingly entitled customer.

Explaining that she received the pen as a gift for her birthday, Withers explains how she realized, mid-shift, that her go-to pen was absent from its carefully situated position in her server book. Even after hunting through the entire restaurant she failed to locate the bedazzled item, but her disappointment didn’t last long — since one of her guests was openly enjoying it.

Grateful over the discovery of her undeniably eye-catching writing utensil, Withers was quick to ask after the pen, but she didn’t get the response she expected. While the customer in question was quick to confirm that the pen was, in fact, located on the ground of the restaurant, her friend wasn’t willing to give up on her unexpected find. She informed Withers that, since she “found it fair and square,” she wouldn’t be returning the pen to its original owner.

She even had the audacity to yell at her friend for exposing her attempted theft, leaving Withers truly uncertain of how to proceed. Ultimately deciding that no pen is worth fighting a customer over, she was ready to simply walk away from the encounter, but it seems at least one half of the party believes in karma. She returned the pen to Withers, which could have been the end of things, but it seems her friend couldn’t help but get one more dig in.

The pen-stealer informed Withers that she could have her pen back, but that it would “cost” her. There’s no clear sign of what, precisely, she intended as repayment, but it seems Withers declined to actually “pay” anything to retrieve her pen. And, since it’s a main character in her retelling of the tale, it seems the beloved item is back where it belongs.

Still, the audacity of a guest not only snatching up, but so rudely proclaiming ownership of, a servers pen struck home with a majority of viewers. They backed up Withers with their own tales of stolen pens, and quite a few noted that things may have gotten violent had they been in the TikToker’s shoes.

This server furor around pens is largely due to the added cost of replacing our writing utensils. Your waiter or waitress is, at least at most restaurants, expected to provide their own writing implements, which means each stolen pen comes straight out of our paychecks. And, since servers make between $20,000 and $31,000 on average in a year, every penny counts.

There are still areas in this country where the server minimum wage is less than $2.50 — looking at you Texas — so those pens are like gold in certain circles. Keep it in mind for the next time you’re dining out — whether it be malicious, as in Withers’ case, or entirely innocent — expect to make some enemies if you wander off with one of your server’s treasured pens.