There are thousands of thankless jobs in the world where the folks that do them humbly go about their work each day. Depending on where you live and where you dine, a restaurant server’s income can be on the small side and rely heavily on tips. Customers can be awesome or not so awesome, as can the waitstaff. With that being said, some of us have favorite places to eat and maybe even a favorite waiter or waitress. Tip or no tip, they treat you well, always with a smile, and their coworkers love them too! Waitress Chelsea Roff came to work one day and had no idea she was being pranked by her coworkers— pranked forward that is!

 

A big sister who took on the task of raising her younger sister at a very young age, Chelsea works as a server at a local smokehouse. After conquering her own eating disorder, she founded and runs her own nonprofit that teaches yoga to others recovering from eating disorders. The bulk of her time is spent working and teaching. Though Chelsea’s had her own financial and personal struggles, she still manages to pay it forward through her community work.

The team at Break decided to do a good deed prank on Chelsea by setting up decoy customers to give her surprisingly generous tips. Little does she know her friends and coworkers are in on the whole thing, arranging for her to wait on undercover gift-givers posing as regular customers. The first guy quietly pays for his meal in cash, and leaves Chelsea another $1,000 in cash as a tip. Her faced flushed with surprise, she humbly tells her coworkers and manager that she can’t keep the money. Up next were a pair of customers who feel horrible that they didn’t have enough money for a tip, and only enough for their $30 meal. They explain to Chelsea that instead, they want to gift her with two tickets to Hawaii, because as travel agents that is what they could offer. Shocked again, Chelsea tucks them away in disbelief as her day gets stranger and stranger. As Chelsea waits on her next customer, she notices the woman happened to have a book on yoga perched on the table. Through a short chat with the lady she ends up sharing her story about how yoga changed her life after battling her eating disorder. The woman turns out to be a psychologist who also runs a nonprofit and is launching a new program for people with eating disorders. Wanting to incorporate yoga as part of the program, she offers Chelsea a job. Though caught off guard, Chelsea was amazed at the opportunity!

For her final surprise of the day, one cheerful customer slips Chelsea a car key as she gets up to leave. Not understanding what was going on, Chelsea is motioned to follow the woman outside, where a brand new car is pulling up with a big red bow on it. It all made sense to Chelsea when her close friend and yoga teacher jumps out of the car to surprise her. Chelsea’s story inspired her friends – who are so proud of how far she’s come and how selfless she is – as well as all the strangers who pitched in to prank it forward on her. How about you? Are you inspired by this prank?