Whenever my mom hears of some wealthy person being a cheapskate, she says “Well, how do you think they got rich?” This Star story made me think of that – according to Star’s source, Mark Zuckerberg is kind of a cheap bastard. Maybe. Probably? Mark was in Maui for New Year’s Eve, and when he was handed the bill, he got out his calculator (abacus?) and he became one of Those Guys who argues about every single charge. Which… I mean, I would understand if it was just some dude on a budget. But a billionaire arguing over a $5 soda charge?

Facbook founder Mark Zuckerberg should update his status to CHEAP! A tipster at the Ritz-Carlton in Maui, where Mark spent New Year’s, says the billionaire went over his bill with a fine-tooth comb, even contesting a $5 charge for soda until it got removed from his tab.

“Mark is a nice guy but far from a big tipper,” the spy continues. “He certainly wasn’t sharing the wealth.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

I want to know what he tips. Like, the percentage. My flat-line tip percentage is 20% unless the service is really terrible, and if it’s a place I always go to or if the service was really awesome, I bump it up to 30-33%. Mark strikes me as the kind of Bill Gates-like geek who just loves numbers and he’s probably at his happiest when he’s doing a line-by-line analysis of his bill. That’s probably the best part of his day.

Speaking of tips and all of that, did you hear the story about the St. Louis pastor who left a nasty note on her receipt? The basic story is that the female pastor and four adult friends and five children went out to eat at Applebee’s. Applebee’s is one of those restaurants where if the party is more than six people, the gratuity is automatically added to the bill, regardless of whether or not you get separate checks. So when the pastor saw that an 18% gratuity was added to her bill, she added a note: “I give God 10% why do you get 18” and scratched out the tip, adding “0”.

The server showed the receipt to another waitress (or somebody at the Applebee’s, I’m confused as to the second person’s position) and that second person took a photo and posted it to Reddit. The pastor found out about it and then called the Applebee’s and demanded that everybody involved should be fired, and the waitress (?) who posted the receipt to Reddit was fired. You can read the full story here at The Smoking Gun. Ridiculous. The whole thing is just ridiculous.

Photos courtesy of WENN.