What to do if you ate in a cafe and find that you have no money

Let's imagine a situation: you came to your favorite place and ate a wonderful lunch. The waiter brings the bill, you reach into your pocket and find nothing there. It doesn't matter if the money was stolen from you or you forgot it. But there is nothing to pay with. Imagination paints scary pictures, like in a movie: now you will be forced to wash dishes or toilets until you work off your debt. The reality is not at all so frightening if both parties act within the framework of the legal framework.

What do you do

You hardly have the illusion that the lack of money is a good reason to leave and not pay the bill. And so it is.

Olga Shirokova Leading Lawyer, European Legal Service

Unwillingness to pay most often qualifies as petty theft. For this, you face either a fine, or administrative arrest, or compulsory work.

So you still need to pay, and this can be done in different ways. If you are an adherent of cash, you do not have a bank card and you have no one to ask to transfer funds to your account, you can choose one of the following options:

Write a receipt. In it, you indicate your personal and contact information, the deadline for the fulfillment of obligations, the amount of debt. Accordingly, when you bring the money, take this paper.
Leave some valuable thing or document as a pledge. Keep in mind this is a right, not an obligation. Nobody should force you to do this.

What can the staff of the establishment do

Most often, the institution is interested in a peaceful settlement of the issue. Especially if you are not trying to secretly sneak away, but you yourself offer solutions.

As we have already found out, the administration of the cafe has the right to demand payment of the bill. Another question is how she does it. For example, employees cannot keep you in the establishment by force. If this happens, call the police.

But there are important nuances here:

You do not refuse to pay the bill. Inform both the administration of the cafe and the police if you do call them.
You are negotiating peacefully, do not dismiss you, do not brawl. Otherwise, you yourself are breaking the law. Your aggressive behavior can be considered hooliganism. And if you are rowdy, the staff of the institution can detain you until the police arrive in order to stop illegal actions. In doing so, they must use force commensurate with your violations. That is, you can not beat you if you shout too loudly and actively gesticulate.

What to remember

You must pay for the ordered dishes if everything is in order with them: there are no foreign objects, and so on.
If there is no money, agree with the staff of the establishment on what conditions you can pay the bill later.
If personnel use force, call the police.

Do you like working in a cafe? Transform your home and regular office into a cafe (virtually)

I confess, I have one thing - I have to work in a room in which I am alone, in which my favorite music is quiet and playing. And most importantly, there should be a table and a comfortable chair on which I sit. No sofas, ottomans, stools and knee work.