Waiter Fired for Letting Homeless Man Stay in Restaurant – The Next Morning, a Plane Ticket Appears on His Doorstep
At 18, I was barely surviving—working minimum wage at a small restaurant while drowning in debt after my parents died. One freezing night, I found a homeless man behind the dumpster and brought him inside so he wouldn’t freeze. My boss caught me and fired me on the spot.
The next morning, an anonymous envelope showed up on my doorstep. Inside was a plane ticket to New York, cash, and a note from Mark—the manager who’d been forced to fire me. He’d told a friend at a top NYC restaurant about me, and they agreed to hire me as a trainee.
I flew out, started at the bottom, and worked relentlessly. Within a few years, I became General Manager.
Then one day, Mark walked into the restaurant. When he realized who I was, he whispered, “You did it.”
“No,” I told him. “We did.”
As he left, he asked if I’d ever considered owning my own place.
I smiled. “I’ve got a meeting with an investor next week.”
New York might soon have a restaurant called Derek’s.
