NEW YORK — The $111.05 New York restaurant receipt includes a $1,000 tip and the words “god bless!” scrawled across it.
The handle @tipsforjesus is stamped next to an illegible signature. In recent weeks, similar tabs have popped up in restaurants from coast to coast and even in Mexico, with tips of as much as $10,000 — all charged to American Express.
So who’s the anonymous tipster leaving a trail of generosity? Tips for Jesus — an Instagram account filled with photos documenting the tips — has more than 50,000 followers. The account displays photos of smiling servers holding receipts with outlandish gratuities on bills also tallied in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Phoenix, and Ann Arbor, Mich. On Twitter, Tips for Jesus has no tweets.
The Instagram feed comes with the tagline, “Doing the Lord’s work, one tip at a time.”
Three Manhattan restaurants were blessed the first weekend of December. A waiter in the restaurant of the NoMad Hotel got a $7,000 tip, another at The Smith restaurant was left $3,500, and $1,000 went to one at Bo’s Kitchen & Bar Room.