Chinese Woman Sued For Stealing Food From Buffet, Asked To Pay Rs 5 Lakh To Eatery

In a bizarre incident, a Chinese woman overindulged in a buffet and then stuffed her handbag with the leftovers. However, she was forced to pay $6,500 (Rs 5.3 lakh) to the eatery as compensation to the restaurant for her conduct, as per a report in the South China Morning Post.

According to the restaurant manager, CCTV footage showed the woman visiting the restaurant five times over the course of two weeks in August 2022 in the Guizhou province of southwest China. She ordered more food than she could possibly eat and then took it upon herself to secretly pack leftovers into plastic bags, which she slyly hid in her handbag. The woman had been visiting the restaurant regularly since March 2021 and hence the management claims that this was not an isolated incident.

As per SCMP, Wen constantly ordered over 10,000 yuan (approximately Rs 1.1 lakh) worth of food, which was ten times more than what most customers would generally eat at the buffet, even though the price per person was 218 yuan (approximately Rs 2,500). 

Further, the woman only ordered expensive dishes such as salmon, goose liver and sweet prawns, according to the restaurant's owner Chen. On one bill, the woman bought 140 servings of meat and dessert in addition to 45 servings of three sweet shrimps at a cost of 48 yuan (approximately Rs 567) each and 20 servings of three salmon sashimi at a cost of 38 yuan (approximately Rs 449) each.

The owner claimed she was shocked to see the woman was taking most of the food away since she had assumed she was a "competitive eater" similar to others she had seen in influencer videos. According to the customer in question, she ordered more food than she could consume and carried the remainder home because "it would be a waste otherwise."

However, the restaurant owner sued her and sought approximately 45,000 yuan (Rs 5.31 lakh) in damages for the five instances where she overindulged. Ms Chen stated that there were several signs mentioning that any leftovers or takeaways would result in additional costs based on the menu pricing and that the eatery had every right to ask for such compensation. The sign stating "Waste over 100g or takeaway needs to be paid according to the menu pricing" was also placed on the cashier's desk and at every table.

As per SCMP, Ms Wen paid the amount as well as an additional 8,000 yuan (approximately Rs 94,000) to cover legal fees in the face of the impending legal threat.

Many people have bashed the act of the woman and have called her "greedy" and "shameless".