Shamed Because He Paid In Quarters, 17 Year Old Boy Did The Unexpected

Shamed Because He Paid In Quarters, 17 Years Old Boy Did The Unexpected

By Sollyanna
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2020-07-12

Article was originally published on our site foodisinthehouse.com

Everyone likes to treat themselves to a meal out from time to time. We all work hard throughout the week, and what better way to spend our hard-earned money than by treating ourselves to a slap-up meal? But there are various etiquette rules about how to behave and pay in a restaurant, and getting it wrong can result in serious embarrassment.
One establishment was particularly unimpressed with their customer’s payment method, and decided to take it public. But they soon realized that there was far more to the story—and the truth hit headlines around the world.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

An Ordinary Kid

17-year-old Cohen Naulty, from Lynchburg, Virginia, seems like any other high school kid, working hard to get good grades and have fun with his friends. But Naulty also has ambitions of his own, and has known from an early age that he wants to be independent and make the best of his life.
So it was no surprise to his parents when Naulty decided to take a part time job and earn some money for himself.
But no one had any idea that the way Naulty decided to spend his money, would end up hitting the news around the world.

Image via Cohen Naulty / Facebook

Night Out

Like any teenager or young adult, even though Naulty was a super hard-working kid, he also wanted to be able to go out and have fun with his friends. Thanks to his job at Country Cookin, he was now earning a nice pay packet and could afford to treat himself to a meal out with his buddies at a nice restaurant.
And so Naulty and his friends headed out for a meal together, looking forward to the yummy food and fun times.
But none of them had no idea the drama that was about to unfold.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Feeling Generous

Naulty and his friends had a great time at the restaurant, eating delicious things and just enjoying the chance to spend some quality time together. One of the best feelings in the world is being surrounded by your best friends, laughing and talking while tucking into a yummy meal.
At the end of the meal, however, things were about to take an unexpected turn. As Naulty had been working so hard and earning his own money, he decided to use his earnings in an unexpected and surprising way—one that his friends would never see coming.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

It’s On Me!

After Naulty and his friends had finished their dinner, it was time to ask for the bill. When the bill came, Naulty’s pals were shocked to discover that he had secretly been planning something very special.
Generous Naulty had decided to pay not only for himself, but for all of his friends too!
No matter how much everyone tried to insist it was too much for Naulty to pay the entire bill, he wouldn’t listen—and he treated everyone to their slap up meal.
But unbeknownst to them, Naulty’s incredible generosity was about to cause some real problems…

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Shock Horror

Even though Naulty had only wanted to try and do a nice thing for his friends, his actions caused a huge stir within the restaurant—and not for happy reasons.
After Naulty and his pals had paid the bill and headed out, the staff back at the restaurant were looking at his payment with horror.
After the horror, many of them began to express irritation and anger. They couldn’t believe what this customer had done!
But what exactly was so bad about Naulty’s chosen method of payment?

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Little By Little

Despite Naulty’s generosity, the restaurant had taken real issue with what he had done—or rather, the method he had chosen to do it. The truth was, Naulty had paid the entire bill using an unconventional method.
He hadn’t paid with credit card or leaving a couple of 20-dollar bills, but in a much stranger choice of money.
Nauty had paid the entire bill using only quarters!
With piles and piles of coins to count up to reach the total bill, the staff was less than pleased with this behavior from their customer.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Not Impressed

The staff at the restaurant was incredibly annoyed with this rude customer’s decision to pay the entire bill all in quarters. Didn’t they have any idea how long it would take them to count up all these piles of coins, and how hard and fiddly it would be to make sure they had the right amount?
For a busy restaurant, this is a huge inconvenience, and they felt really put out that this customer hadn’t kept that in mind while paying.
So they decided to take action—in a way that would end up having huge consequences.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Going Public

Incredibly annoyed with the way this inconsiderate customer had treated them, the restaurant decided to take the issue to their social media page, venting publicly about how irritating and rude they found it.
“We’ll just caption this, ‘How NOT to pay at a restaurant’, cause that's the nicest thing we can think to say about this ridiculousness," they wrote in the caption. They also added some angry hashtags, saying things like, “We are Beer 88 not Coinstar” and “No home training.”
The comments soon rolled in on the post—but not in the way the restaurant had expected…

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Voice of The People

Although many people did respond agreeing with the post, saying that it was indeed rude and annoying to pay in so much change, the majority of commenters were actually on the side of the original customer.
Many people commented saying that it was simply unfair to publicly shame a customer just because they had paid in a way the restaurant didn’t like. They had paid the correct amount, after all…
But among the many commenters and responders, no one had any idea the unexpected response that was about to come.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Stunned into Silence

As the Facebook discussion continued, another post appeared on the social media site that pretty much silenced everyone else. It was Cohen Naulty himself, who had seen the restaurant’s post about his choice of payment, and had decided it was time for him to speak up.
“Took a few friends out to lunch and only had enough to pay for their meal with quarters,” he wrote in this post. “Though it was enough for the meal and a great tip, I was blasted on FaceBook by the restaurant for paying in quarters.”

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Hard Times

Naulty proceeded to describe how this lambasting post had made him feel, being publicly shamed after trying to do a nice thing for his friends. “It was not a good day,” Naulty shared candidly on his post.
Imagine trying to do something good and kind, and not only being criticized for how you have done it, but seeing the criticism in a public forum!
But for Naulty, this difficult experience was the beginning of a beautiful story.
“Then I had a great idea,” he continued in the post.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Pay it Forward

So what exactly was Naulty’s big idea after being so publicly shamed for his quarter-counting? Amazingly, Naulty’s experience inspired him to actually become more generous, in a way that no one could have ever expected.
“I love paying for people’s meals,” he wrote. “Even if I have to scrape together my last quarters to do so."
"This whole thing made me realize how much I love doing this and why,” he added. “Even if I get made fun of for it!”

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Quarter Quell

The reason why Naulty decided to pay the bill in quarters wasn’t just because he felt like being inconvenient or deliberately annoying the wait staff at the restaurant. The actual reason was that Naulty, himself a hardworking waiter, always received his tips in quarters.
Being such a brilliant and dedicated worker, he had received tons of tips—which is how he had ended up with such a big collection of coins.
Not only did Naulty have an incredibly good reason for his decision, but he decided to take his kindness to even the next level.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Spread the Love

After the way Naulty had been treated by the restaurant, you could understand if he would have been totally turned off from going out to eat ever again! But Naulty was no ordinary kid—in fact, the experience inspired him to do even more good things for other people.
“I decided that I would find restaurants out there that didn’t mind being paid in quarters and treat a patron at least once a week,” he wrote. “Just to see what this simple act of kindness could do for them."
But how exactly would he pull off this generous gesture?

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Big Ideas

It was a wonderful and generous thought to try and buy people dinner just out of the kindness of his heart, and Naulty certainly meant well with his idea.
The problem was, he was only a high school kid with a part-time job waiting tables. How exactly would he be able to afford paying for everyone else’s dinner all the time?
But for someone as determined as Naulty, he knew he would find a way. And he ended up settling on the perfect idea…

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Funding Fun

Even though he knew he would never be able to pay for all the meals he wanted to buy people out of kindness, he set on an amazing idea to help raise the funds so that he could keep doing this amazing gesture for more and more people.
He set up an online donations system, so that people could contribute from wherever they were, in the hope that someone in need of a free meal could benefit from Naulty’s great idea.
It seemed like a brilliant scheme! But there was only one condition…

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Challenge Accepted

Naulty set up his fundraiser in the hope that people from all over would donate money to help pay for other people’s meals, and it was an incredible idea to try and increase acts of kindness everywhere in one small way.
But there was one condition for choosing which restaurants to go to. Can you guess it?
That’s right—they had to accept the bill quarters! As his original gesture, paying for his friends’ dinners, had been in quarters—and that’s how he often earns his money—Naulty wanted to find restaurants who won’t judge him like this one did.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Big Bucks

All Naulty had wanted to do was raise enough funds to be able to pay for a few more people’s meals. Having already treated his friends to a slap-up dinner, he wanted the opportunity to bring this happy treat and act of kindness to others in some small way.
He had hoped for a few generous donations from others—but the extent of the funds eventually raised, totally blew him away.
But how much money did Naulty really raise from this project?

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Mega Money

The truth was, Naulty’s fundraiser had raised a whopping amount of money. From all the donations received from people all over the world, inspired by Naulty’s acts of kindness and his willingness to carry on helping others, the total donations reached a massive sum of over $5,000.
Wowser! $5,000 would certainly pay for quite a few meals, wouldn’t it? And this incredible show of generosity from others, was only the beginning of this domino effect of kindness kickstarted by Naulty’s actions.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Getting Involved

Before long, more and more restaurants had got wind of Naulty’s endeavor, and more and more people were being moved by his inspirational story of finding kindness in a difficult situation.
To Naulty’s surprise and delight, he started receiving offers from many different restaurants, saying that they would be more than happy to receive their full bill in only quarters. Naulty was stunned. He had no idea his simple idea of a few acts of kindness would reach such great heights.
But in reality one restaurant was about to take this even further.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Domino Effect

As more and more restaurants spoke out saying that they were more than happy to accept Naulty’s payment of their bill entirely in quarters, one restaurant in particular was inspired by Naulty’s kindness to take this generosity even further.
One of Naulty’s favorite places to eat, the popular franchise Domino’s Pizza, not only said they’d be happy to accept the bill, but also donated $200 to the campaign themselves.
Naulty was stunned and delighted by how well his idea was being received—but the truth was that things were only about to get more crazy.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook
As more and more people got wind of Naulty’s amazing project, and started donating and sharing the link to more and more people on their social networks, the impact of the original post ended up reaching even wider than Naulty could ever have thought it might.
Imagine his surprise when he received a phone call from Whitney Burney, a reporter for a popular Michigan news station! Burney traveled to Virginia and interviewed Naulty, running a piece on his incredible project. Naulty couldn’t believe it—he was in the news!

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Down Under Donations

Now that Naulty’s story had hit the headlines, news of his incredible generosity and acts of kindness spread even further throughout the world. In fact, word spread so far across different countries and continents that he ended up receiving a donation from somewhere across the world!
That’s right, someone from Australia donated to his campaign. “Goodluck mate,” said the quintessentially Aussie-sounding post. “Donated from Melbourne, Australia.”
With a donation all the way from the land Down Under, Naulty’s story really had gone truly international!

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Branching Out

And that’s not the only way Naulty’s amazing idea had grown into something bigger and better than he had ever imagined. As well as using the huge amount of money he had raised from the online donations to take people out for dinner, he also used it in other places that people in the community were in need of help.
For example, Naulty used some of the money to help people out at their local coin laundry. That’s one place you can be sure will never judge you for using coins, after all!

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Fan Favorite

Naulty’s story had inspired people from all over the world, of all walks of life. Not only had people from his local community of Lynchburg, Virginia, donated and shared his post, but he had even drawn attention from news outlets across the U.S. Not only that, but he had even gained fans as far across the world as Australia!
However, despite the massive success of Naulty’s initiative and the amazing difference he had made to many people’s lives, there was one thing still bothering everyone.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

The Hardest Word

Even though Naulty’s story had done so much good, there was one element of this story that had not yet been wrapped up. Many fans were quick to point out that despite the massive success of his campaign, one company was still remaining very silent—the restaurant that had kickstarted all of this, by shaming Naulty online for his choice to pay with quarters.
Naulty’s mother was especially upset by the restaurant’s comments, particularly the suggestion that her son had been brought up without being taught proper manners.
But would the restaurant back down and eat their words?

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Humble Pie

Eventually, the restaurant in question did speak up to apologize for their actions and express regret for any harm they had caused to Naulty with their hurtful comments.
Clearly, Naulty had used the incident as an opportunity to spread kindness and goodwill, so he wasn’t too badly affected by it—but nonetheless, it was an important step for the restaurant to take.
The owner explained that the original post had simply been a joke, and they did not mean to ever insult anyone or hurt anyone’s feelings.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Graceful Gratitude

In his characteristic style of kindness and positivity, Naulty accepted the restaurant’s apology without hesitation. Even though what they had posted wasn’t the kindest of things to do, he didn’t let it hold him back from being a positive influence on others and continuing to do what he could to help others.
In fact, you could even say that this event was the catalyst that spurred him on to these great acts of kindness. Even today, Naulty continues to exhibit the generosity of spirit that saw him first hitting the headlines—in ways you may not expect.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Facebook Famous

So after his project went viral and gained millions of fans across the world, not to mention national press attention, what on earth could Cohen Naulty possibly do next?
The truth is, even today, Naulty continues to focus on doing good to others and raising money where he can to donate to other people in need. Naulty has his own Facebook page called The Quarter Boy, where he posts inspiring stories and encourages others to do their own acts of kindness.
Naulty’s commitment to charity and good deeds, and seeing the positive in everything, is an inspiration to us all.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

Hard Worker

The young Cohen Naulty knew even as a kid that if he wanted to become independent in life and not just rely on the bank of mom and dad, then he had to get himself a job and start earning his own money.
With that in mind, he decided to get a job working in one of Lynchburg’s most popular restaurant chains. Virginia natives will be familiar with Country Cookin, a much-loved favorite with diners, serving hearty favorites such as mashed potatoes and macaroni.
Naulty loved it too, and decided this would be the perfect place for him to work.

Image via The Quarter Boy / Facebook

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