As the saying goes, "There's no such thing as a free lunch". And that's absolutely true. Somewhere, somehow, somebody or something must pay for your lunch in some way.

At the soup lines for homeless people, somebody has to pay for the soup. For those free tickets to the game, someone had to pay, someone who didn't get to see it. And that nice new laptop you won at the raffle, the people around you, didn't they pay for it with their tickets?

That's the basis of this restaurant. People walk in, sit down, and order food. Their total "spending" is entered into a machine, and "The Bill" accumulates, waiting for someone unlucky enough to have to "pay The Bill"

Once "The Bill" reaches critical, the next person to order must foot the cost of "The Bill". The more you spend, the higher the chance of you having to foot "The Bill", and it is unknown as to when "The Bill" has reached critical.

For everyone else, the food is free. Until "The Bill" reaches critical, that is. As I said, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
-- DesertFox, Mar 11 2006

I don't think it's that bad, but I can think of much less risky ways of trying to get a free lunch.

The only economic model I can think that comes close to this is the watering hole, where animals have to approach the water to drink, but one in a while one of them will be taken by the predators also frequenting the hole. I think there's a very good reason this model doesn't exist in our daily lives - no one will willingly follow it.
-- DrCurry, Mar 11 2006


Urm, no, it's not a rant. It would certainly attract gamblers, and most of the time, you wouldn't have to pay. And if you did, just go there a lot. The cost will even out over time.
-- DesertFox, Mar 11 2006


Ah. Okay. Once "The Bill" reaches a random preset amount, it is "critical".
-- DesertFox, Mar 11 2006



random, halfbakery