'First time in my life': Restaurant owner surprised after family charged $2 for $200 lobsters return to pay balance

Mistakenly undercharged $198 for a lobster dish at a Siglap eatery, a family returned the next day to pay the correct amount.

In a heartwarming Facebook post on Thursday (Feb 19), the owner of Cheng Ji Seafood Restaurant thanked the diners for their honesty.

Owner Dai Xingying (transliteration) told Shin Min Daily News that she had wrongly keyed in the price of two small Australian lobsters as $2 instead of $200 when calculating the bill for the family of four.

The error went unnoticed due to the bustling Chinese New Year (CNY) crowd, and Dai did not find any discrepancies when recording their sales at the end of the day.

To her surprise, two teenagers from the family returned on Thursday night to inform her that they had been undercharged.

Dai wrote on Facebook that a group of customers had "dined and dashed" on the first day of CNY.

"It is the first time in my life seeing a customer voluntarily return to pay the difference when it was us who made a mistake," she said.

The restaurant owner said she gave the siblings red packets to convey her new year blessings and gratitude, and also thanked their parents who were waiting in the nearby car park.

"In this era of rigorousness, their sincerity and kindness are ten thousand times more precious than Australian lobsters," Dai added.

"Thank you to the girls, thank you to this family. This has taught both the children and us that kindness is truly a two-way street."

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lim.kewei@asiaone.com