Reading this thread reminded me of a little thing that happened to me last week. I was dining with some friends and family at a Japanese restaurant in the USA. The bill came to $27 and change (which sounds cheap but a number of us had separate checks). Not having many $1 bills I stuffed $30 into the envelope and handed it back to the server. The server never came back with the change. "Must have taken it as a tip," said another member of my party when I mentioned this. I wound up leaving another $2 on the table but only because it was a Japanese restaruant in the USA and I appreciated the typical Japanese attention to excellent service (until they failed to bring me the change, anyway). Were it one of those regular chain places I would gladly have walked out and let them keep their self-declared <10% "tip" (unless the service was really bad, in which case I would have been glad to embarrass the heck out of the server by asking loudly where is the change). What would you all do in a situation like this?

Now, note that I twice qualified my description of this Japanese restaurant above with "in the USA", because one wouldn't leave a tip at a Japanese restaurant in Japan. Whenever I come across these tipping discussions there are invariably a number of comments that, in summary, "you should tip your server 79% of the bill because your server is overworked and underpaid. If you really, really disliked the service then a 77% tip would be an appropriate way to register your displeasure." Now, I realize that not every country is Japan, but I think it's important to note that in some cultures giving people extra money because your opinion holds them to be working too hard for their wages would be seen as looking down on them and would be taken as a grievous insult. Is anyone else bothered that so many people hold overworked + underpaid = toss 'em some more money to be a moral absolute?