A Bojangles customer revealed that he ended a pay-it-forward chain at the chain’s drive-thru when the total for the car behind him was $45—three times the total he was expecting to pay for his own order. The customer’s decision, which he shared on TikTok, has sparked discussion about the pay-it-forward practice.
Posted by user Darius (@chefboyardarius), the storytime video has been viewed over 1 million times, with nearly 3,000 comments from folks debating the situation.
On his way home from work around 8am, Darius explains that he stopped by Bojangles for three sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits.
“As I’m pulling in, this lady in this big black Buick about runs me over trying to get in front of me in line, and I’m like, dang big hungry, the food ain’t going nowhere, calm down,” he recalls.
However, when he gets to the window to pay, the employee tells Darius the customer in front him paid for his order.
“I was like, well thank you, the fact that she paid $15 for somebody else, that’s wild. Because I didn’t want to pay it for myself, but you know I appreciate it. So the lady was like, ‘do you want to pay for the next car’s food?’”
Darius was shocked. “I was looking at her like, what you mean, how you going to ask me something like that?” he says.
@chefboyardarius $45 at Bojangles is crazy… or am I trippin.
♬ original sound – Darius
Hearing that the total for the car behind him was actually $45, he declined to continue the pay-it-forward line.
“Who’s spending $45 at Bojangles?” he concludes the video. “I don’t mean to sound broke, but I’m not doing that.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @chefboyardarius via Instagram direct message for a comment regarding the video.
In the comments section, many viewers agreed with Darius, claiming that they will always be the ones to end a pay-it-forward line.
“The pay it forward line ends with me,” one user wrote.
“the ‘pay it forward’ will ALWAYS stop with me,” another commenter stated.
“Me: All trains have a caboose, guess i’m the last car,” a third shared.
Others offered their own pay-it-forward experiences, pointing to the vast range of payments in the pay-it-forward practice.
“i offered to buy the car behind me, the cashier said ‘baby take your free ice cream and go on their order is fifty dollars,’” say less,” one commenter wrote.
“At Starbucks someone paid for my $4 drink and the next person was $19 and I just stared at her and said..,’no thank you,’” another added. “she said I don’t blame ya.”
“I was a whataburger i ordered a $11 meal,” a third explained. “It was paid. the people behind me had a $67 i broke a 20 car chain.”
