Primary school boy calmly told off by canteen stall owner, 27, for throwing cash on counter

A primary school canteen stall owner, 27, has gone viral on TikTok for his attempts to correct a students' behaviour in regards to ordering etiquette.

Even as a school boy chucked bank notes and yelled at him, the stall owner, Rayner Tan, who goes by @veg.eng on TikTok, was unfazed and called out their rude conduct.

Many netizens sided with Tan, with the video racking up 2.5 million views and over 1,700 comments as of the time of writing.

@veg.eng starting school canteen stall at 27 please don't shout/bang table #respect #student #viral #fyp #explore ♬ Attention, warning sound, sound effect of alarm! 08 - Rapid Fire

Boy yells and throw money

Tan regularly films and posts online his experiences running a vegetarian curry rice and prata stall in Mee Toh School in Punggol.

He often uploads his interactions with his customers, primary school children.

According to a CNA interview, he has been running the stall for a little over three months with little prior food and beverage experience.

The 50-second clip in this recent video shows Tan attending to two students.

The first shouts out his order even before reaching the stall whilst Tan is still attending to another student.

As he continues serving, he tells the boy not to shout, only to be greeted with yet another ear-piercing "okay!".

The same boy is then seen tossing a S$2 note onto the counter, before Tan firmly corrects his behaviour with the words "pass me [the cash] properly".

Tan later engages the student in conversation by asking if has tried his curry rice before, noting in the video's text to not to "hold it against [the boy]", and that there were "no hard feelings".

Netizens weigh in

The comments were awash with praise for Tan with many commenters noting his firm but and calm approach.

Most noted how he was teaching them etiquette and politeness.

Canteen vendor shortage

In light of recent announcement that schools would be implementing a central kitchen model, many netizens were quick to point out that interactions like these that teach children social skills are diminishing.

They also bemoaned the loss of a human touch with this new system.

13 schools in Singapore will adopt the Central Kitchen Meal Model (CKNM) from January 2026.

This is due to difficulties in replacing vacant stalls and the retirement of many existing canteen stallholders, despite low rental costs.

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Top photo from @veg.eng/TikTok