Tips can be small and scarce for those working in the service industries, but every so often a generous customer comes along when they least expect it. Fe Cleofe Ridor, a nail technician in Dubai, normally gets tips that range from Dh5 to Dh20 to augment her monthly salary of Dh2,000. More generous people give her Dh50 or Dh100, but once she was handed Dh1,200 by a man following his treatment. "I thought it was weird but I accepted it as it is a lot of money," she said.
Sayed Hussain, a taxi driver in Dubai, recalled: "On one occasion, an Emirati woman tipped me Dh500 after dropping her off at hospital. "Another, a western expat, seeing that I was working on the first day of Eid al Fitr, insisted that he pay my full target of Dh400 so that I could go home and enjoy a day off."