My husband and my sister-in-law are both currently working in food service, he a part-time caterer while he returns to school, she a table-waiting lifer. Both have recently been involved in that dreaded of all most crooked food service behavior: the manager who wants in on the tips.

For J., who usually tends bar and has a knack for earning a boatload of tips, one manager in particular has been tipping herself out of the bartender's pool at the end of the night. She's the only manager in the company who does it and he won't report her (though I've suggested it) because, he tells me, she's so miserable. Life is not treating her right - who is he to make it worse?

I say, though, it's a matter of principle. Food service workers may not share a very large body of common ethics, but there are two that are universal: (1) always tip generously when being waited upon by others and (2) managers may be paid less than they deserve but they never, no never, get tipped out.

It's not about equitable pay. Everyone knows that most managers in food service make less than their employees. It's about power. If managers could take tips... well, what's to stop them from taking double their share? What's to stop them from exercising power over their employees by strongarming them into tipping out more than they should?

And remember how I mentioned that food service employees don't have a whole raft of common ethics. No, they're a lying, cheating, greedy lot (and I say this as a former member of the food service industry, myself). There must be some standards.

The final reason: most wait staff are already tipping out bartenders, bus boys, and the occasional extra-helpful chef. Sure, they may be making more per hour than the manager, but the tips should flow in only one direction.

In the other case, my sister-in-law E. had a Bad Manager. Mr. BM was mercurial, and one day sent her on break suddenly at an awkward time. He took the check out to one of her tables, himself. When she came back from break? He'd changed the table to his own name in the system and pocketed the tip.

So tell me, who's right? Should these tip-sharing managers be reported to the authorities? Or should we just wait for the karma to kick back? Because that kitchen door is just going to swing right back on their rear ends, mark my words.