I remember when my friends and I were younger, we often invited each other to a restaurant with families. A joint meal brings together, and is a good time for heartfelt conversations.
But every time after the feast, we started the Kazakh folk game: “I’ll pay!”. We vying with each other tore out the bill for payment from the waiter, and then from each other and with a generous kind paid for it. The winner in this game was the one who will tear out the bill and pay it for everyone. He was considered to be the most generous and therefore rich and steep.
Then we grew up, we traveled around the world, looked at people and for some time stopped playing this game. Maybe because we are not trying to prove anything to our friends (they are very well aware of the generosity and condition of each other), or maybe because in any company there are friends with less prosperity, and it is costly to compete with others, and not to compete will create an embarrassing situation.
On this ground there was even a moment when joint trips with friends to restaurants almost stopped because one family could not afford to pay for everyone, and it was embarrassing for them to treat themselves on someone else’s expense every time.
In general, after having overcome all these “showing-offs”, now we go to a restaurant in American style, that is, each family pays for itself. It became much easier. Everyone orders himself how much he wants and how much he can afford. Nobody depends on anyone. And there is no need to fight for a bill. Only in those cases when someone invites guests to a restaurant for a personal celebration, means that he pays for everyone.
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