You Can’t Keep a Friendly Relationship with Everyone Even If You Always Have Good Intentions

by the author

• If you accidentally spill food on someone’s clothes while dining in a restaurant, what do you do?
• If you are the person whose clothes got stained by someone else, what would you do?

Coincidentally, I witnessed an incident like this yesterday. I was having a meal in a restaurant and there was a couple on a date next to me. There was a young man around who accidentally stumbled while carrying his food and spilled it on the couple.

The young man immediately apologized and offered to pay for the cleaning of their clothes. The couple was clearly upset and no longer enjoyed their meal as before.

However, they did not lash out at the young man and accepted his apology without asking for compensation. After that, I could feel that the couple was still unhappy for a while and the atmosphere was not as cheerful as before.

After witnessing this event, I have been thinking: what should I do if I were that guy?

I have thought about it for a long time and realized that I don’t have a solution. Firstly, apologizing is necessary. However, an apology cannot immediately clean the clothes, which are still dirty. Offering money is also useless, as the clothes will not be cleaned…