KNOXVILLE, TN — A Knoxville man quietly resolved a decades-long internal debate over tipping etiquette Sunday afternoon by establishing that his tithe constitutes a unified, transferable giving philosophy applicable to both his local church and any Applebee’s in the greater metro area.

Gary Huffman, 51, of Knoxville left $4.70 on a $47 lunch tab following a post-church meal with his family, informing his wife that he had “already given at the office,” gesturing vaguely in the direction of their church three miles east.

“The principle is the principle,” said Huffman, who has tithed faithfully since 1998 and considers himself, by his own accounting, “one of the generous ones.” He noted that he rounded up to the nearest dime, which he described as “grace on top of obedience.”

“I’m not saying God told me to tip ten percent. I’m saying I haven’t felt led otherwise.”

Their server, Destiny Alcott, 24, who worked a double shift and covered two tables abandoned mid-meal by a family whose toddler had a medical situation, confirmed she received $4.70 and a pocket-sized devotional left beneath the bread basket.

“It had a bookmark in it already,” Alcott said. “Someone else had underlined stuff. I don’t know what to tell you.”

Huffman’s pastor, Rev. Dale Ochsner, 58, declined to comment on the theological merits of the arrangement but noted that the church’s own giving envelopes do not include a line for “meals and services rendered.”

At press time, Huffman had returned to the restaurant after discovering he left his reading glasses, and quietly added $3 to the table while nobody was looking, bringing his effective tip to 16.4% and theologically complicating everything.