A tourist rushing to catch a flight gave the taxi driver two 500 euro notes, noting that he did not need change. The huge tip confused the taxi driver and social network users with whom he shared his good fortune.
The incident occurred in Thailand. An ordinary trip turned the driver into a new “millionaire” by Thai standards. The man shared his story in the Thailand Taxi Drivers group on Facebook and instantly caused a stir.
It was clarified that the trip cost the foreign tourist only 677 baht. The Thai man said that he picked up the foreigner in the city center to take him to Don Mueang airport. However, there was confusion and as a result, the passenger was expected at Suvarnabhumi Airport. The foreigner promised a generous reward if he did not miss his flight. However, the Thai was unlikely to count on such a sum.
Users noted that the bills left by the generous tourist amount to lottery winnings. And no wonder: two 500 euro notes can be exchanged for 38,000 Thai baht. On the other hand, the disproportionately high tip amount prompted questions from users about whether the bills were genuine and whether the customer expected to tip that much money on one trip. There was also speculation that the passenger had made a mistake and thought he was giving away Thai banknotes rather than euros. According to skeptics, a foreigner could easily confuse the banknotes with Thai banknotes.
“At first I didn’t want to accept them because they were unfamiliar to me and I was afraid that I would be deceived,” he said.
The driver assured me that the banknotes were real. As proof, he shared a photo of a receipt, which indicated that he did visit the exchange office, gave away euros, and received local currency.