How I nearly tipped 120%

There's a lot of do's and don'ts around tipping, and customs across the world. In all, tipping for various services depends on the custom and nationality of the tipper, as also the practices in the country in which one is traveling to. There are a lot of resources online, about how much to tip where, so I won't get into that.

Regular readers may know that I recently traveled to Warsaw, and spent a week there at the Intercontinental Warsaw. One of the evenings that I was there, a colleague (a local, ie Varsovian) and I went out for dinner, which turned out to be a lesson for me in local tipping customs.

Before I proceed, I must mention that I try to take a reasonable interest in my surroundings, particularly when I travel overseas. In part, this means that I try to learn (and remember) key words in the local language. In this case, that meant knowing that 

dziękuję (Jen-koo-yeh) was for Thank You, and

proszę (pro-sheh) was for Please.

To cut a long story short, we had a couple of beers and a light dinner, after which my colleague left the table to use the restroom. I called for the bill/check, which came up to around 90 PLN, and I used a 200 PLN banknote to pay for it. 

When the waitress came to pick up the tab, I handed over the cash to her, with a dziękuję (thank you). My colleague returned a couple of minutes later and after querying me if I'd asked for the tab, he and I continued chatting.

After about 20 minutes, he grew restless, and was annoyed that the restaurant hadn't yet come back with change, so he called the waitress to check. Twenty seconds of rapid Polish (which obviously I didn't understand), and my colleague burst out laughing uncontrollably! It took a few more minutes to get him back to normal, followed by this explanation.

Apparently, Polish custom is that if you pay your bill with a Thank You, the balance - no matter how small or, in my case, large - is considered as a tip. Instead, I'm told that you need to pay your bill with a Please, which ensures you get your change back.

Nonetheless, my colleague was able to explain the situation to the waitress, and I'm glad she took it in good spirit and brought me back the entire change. We then left after tipping a more reasonable and acceptable amount!