HARRY GOLDEN, ONE OF MY FAVORITE WRITERS
Perhaps it's happened to you. You go out for lunch, and you want to treat your guest. As the bill is being paid, the guest says, "I'll take care of the tip." Here's what Harry Golden writes about that.
I'LL TAKE CARE OF THE TIP – Harry Golden, circa 1955
He’s doing you a great big favor - He’ll “take care of the tip.” When you pick up the check you either treat or you don’t treat. Now when the fellow whom you are treating says “I’ll take care of the tip,” what is he really doing? First of all, you’ll notice, he always says, “Go ahead. I’ll take care of the tip.”
So for twenty cents (he never tips enough), what is he doing? He’s taking the edge off your own pleasure in treating, and for the great big twenty cents he is taking himself completely off the hook, spiritually, mentally, psychologically, to say nothing of – financially. What does he mean, “I’ll take care of the tip”? You pay $1.68 and he pays twenty cents – this you call “taking-care-of”?
The next time you pay the check and the fellow says, “I’ll take care of the tip,” do one of two things: either smile sweetly and say, “No, let’s split the whole thing down the middle,” or pick up a sugar bowl and knock him on the hay-ed.
(That's what I call, FUNNY! ;-) Jack)