Free Lunch
We ate at one of our favorite restaurants this afternoon. It’s a great place with a large, secluded family section. Each party of guests gets their own private room. When you need something, you simply ring a buzzer and a waiter appears shortly thereafter. A large, high quality meal for six came to 85 rials, about $23.
I didn’t have cash today, I haven’t needed any recently, and I had forgotten that the restaurant doesn’t accept plastic. I was on my way out the door to an ATM (very close by!), when a Qatari stopped me, and gave me 100 rials. It would be rude to refuse a gift, so I accepted it. Qatar is like that.
I think of the money as a loan rather than a gift, because God willing, we will surely pass that and more on to someone else as soon as opportunity presents. Generosity is contagious, and it multiplies. The generosity we have witnessed and experienced in this country is truly amazing.
I didn’t have cash today, I haven’t needed any recently, and I had forgotten that the restaurant doesn’t accept plastic. I was on my way out the door to an ATM (very close by!), when a Qatari stopped me, and gave me 100 rials. It would be rude to refuse a gift, so I accepted it. Qatar is like that.
I think of the money as a loan rather than a gift, because God willing, we will surely pass that and more on to someone else as soon as opportunity presents. Generosity is contagious, and it multiplies. The generosity we have witnessed and experienced in this country is truly amazing.
posted by dervish at Thursday, April 21, 2005
8 Comments:
Was the Qatari guy someone random that you didn't know? I don't find that normal.
Maybe it was a "pay if forward" act. It would be nice if more people were like that. Oh why analyze it, it was a nice thing to do.
Hey it's amara7, dervish's wife. The guy was a total stranger. Apparently he was inside the restaurant picking up takeout or something and overheard dervish talking to the waiter and caught him on the way out.
what a lovely gesture - and so unusual to westerners!
I agree with blue_chi, this isn't normal. I can understand your predicament thinking it would be rude to say no because that's what expats are always told. But I don't agree with it. Arab culture is one based on giving, but even when one finds himself in a situation where he has to accept the gift it's usually the norm to try to refuse it first. It's similar to the common "fighting over the bill" situation where every man on the table would grab for the bill and insist on paying it himself. You know that you'll end up with someone else paying for the meal, but you still put an effort to try to stop it or else offer to pay the next time, something of that effect.
Even though Arabs have this weird habit of offering to pay for total strangers' bills, it's not considered polite to offer someone cash because it's embarrassing for the person receiving it. I wouldn't want to be in a situation where a total stranger gives me money, hence I will never put someone in such a situation either.
Maybe this is something unique to Qatar. I did try to refuse it, but the gentleman insisted. This is not the first time we have encountered this. We have witnessed and experienced extreme acts of generosity here.
It's not that hard to figure out. As I said before, generosity is contagious. There are less than 25,000 Qatari households in the whole country... while it's not possible to know everyone, nearly everyone is at least a "friend of a friend". All it takes is a few people out there practicing acts of "radical generosity" and pretty soon everyone else is passing it on.
I have been in about three dozen countries, and nowhere have I found people more generous than the Qataris.
Assalaamu alaikum,
I think that's wonderful - masha'allah.
Appreciate thiis blog post
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