Well, at least partially.

For those living under a rock, the story goes that a man, Akhilesh Kumar, treated two street children at one ‘Hotel Sabrina’, and was surprised when he received the bill, that read, “We don’t have a machine that can bill humanity. May good things happen to you.” (Translated from Malayalam). 

The story had gone viral on the internet after Akhilesh posted it on his wall on January 6, with several media platforms including us promptly picking it up.

Here is the original post by Akhilesh Kumar:

But Internet doesn’t spare anyone, and when India Today followed up the story and contacted the restaurant, its owner C Narayanan said none of his employees remembered such an incident and that he was receiving calls form journalists from across India!

When the magazine contacted Akhilesh, he said the incident occurred in 2013. He insisted that such an incident indeed did happen then, and that in order to recreate the story, he simply took a fake bill and reproduced the “exact lines” on it.

Further to the ‘investigation’ in this matter, a recent Facebook post on a group Right Thinkers – who had originally published the story – said Hotel Sabrina’s restaurant is on the first floor and the ground floor only has reception, suggesting the story might be a fake one. The post added that the security guards don’t allow street kids to come inside and the hotel has tinted glass windows that do now allow anyone to look through it.

Well, we can only say that in the age of social media, it is easy to gain attention through fake pictures and stories, but it will expose you, sooner rather than later.