My business partner and I were having dinner at the Eiffel Tower restaurant at the top of the Paris Casino in Las Vegas. This is a formal eatery where not much on the menu falls below thirty dollars.

We were in Vegas to attend a trade show, and we were letting off steam that night. Drinking heavily, eating hardy, having raucous fun. At some point during the meal we decided that we weren't going to pay for the repast. It made perfect sense - we were so drunken that we couldn't see them, so how could they see us? We'd just get up, and leave!

My buddy left first - he slipped out unnoticed. Or so I thought. But as I sat there finishing up some cognac, the waiter started literally hovering over the table. And soon, so was the maitre d'. I'm not sure how they knew, but they knew! and they wouldn't let me out of their sight.

The worst part was that I wasn't even sure how I was going to pay for the meal. I didn't have much, if any cash on me - I'd lost it all gambling, and my partner was the moneybags end of our company.

Finally, sweating profusely notwithstanding the heavy blasts of air conditioning and the waiter breathing down my neck, I gave them a debit card for my bank account - which I was sure was at least a hundred dollars shy of what I needed to cover everything. Somehow, to my surprise and relief, it went through.

There was to be no dine and dash, at least not that night!