Taco Bell employee says it's hard to tell which customers really need help and which are just trying to get free food » TwistedSifter

In many restaurants, if you don't have enough change for your order, it will simply be thrown away.

But not at this Taco Bell branch.

“There have been countless cases of people ordering their food,” explains TikToker and Taco Bell employee @caleb_lennon in a voiceover with a video of a person cooking and preparing a taco.

“And then they realized they didn't have enough money to pay for it.”

The general business policy of this Taco Bell is, “If you're one penny short, or thirty cents, or something like that, we can either take the money right out of your pocket and complete the checkout, or we can look in the little change jar.”

He says customer satisfaction is the top priority so they come back.

But if you're about to run to Taco Bell to get a free taco, don't be so fast. The staff at this location doesn't usually offer to pay for a meal directly.

They are careful about who they help, and for good reason.

Caleb and his colleagues once witnessed someone placing his wallet between the seats in his car after placing his order and then claiming he couldn't pay.

“We could have given it to them for free if they really needed it,” says the employee in a compassionate voice.

“But they lied to us, so we told them we couldn't give them anything to eat today.”

He posted the video with the caption asking people if their practices “make us vulnerable to fraud.”

No information is provided on the extent to which these compassionate practices affect revenue, or if they do so at all.

Watch the full clip here.

@caleb_lennon

Should we continue to help our customers? Or will this leave us vulnerable to fraud?

♬ Original sound – Caleb

Many people had strong opinions about this video.

Some shared stories about how Taco Bell helped them.

It was good to see that there are other options when people are short on cash.

By helping one customer, you avoid increasing the wait time of other customers, which could cost you sales.

This person was skeptical, but obviously wrong.

Here's another skeptical person. I found that insensitive.

I wonder if employees ever argue about which customers they should help.

I bet it's hard not to help them all.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this video of a former Chipotle employee revealing how the company cheats customers out of food.