A student who works as a server mentioned today that she has been tipped multiple times by people who leave her a Bible in lieu of money, telling her that she will find it far more valuable than money. I had never heard of this before, and it raises several questions.
Has this been a thing for awhile and I've never heard about it, or is there some organization/denomination advocating for this?
Why did these customers use money to buy food when they could have just bought a far more valuable Bible?
Does the server need to report the value of the Bible as income for tax purposes? And if so, is there some equivalent of a blue book to determine the value of the Bible one receives?
If I am going to tip in the form of Bibles, how do I calculate the appropriate type of Bible to leave? Does it depend on the quality of the service? If I'm just paying for myself, is a small Gideon's version acceptable, but I should leave a larger leather-bound annotated version if I'm paying for a larger party?
Also, I couldn't help but think of this: