You are correct. I have personally offended a guest from Italy when I recently sprung to pay the bill before he got his card out. I thought it would be like a f

You are correct. I have personally offended a guest from Italy when I recently sprung to pay the bill before he got his card out. I thought it would be like a funny “ha ha - I got it” sort of moment, but instead it turned just a bit sour. Turned out he had his mind set on it as a way to express his gratitude, and me interrupting was kind of like taking that away from him. Well, I had my mind set on something similar, so we sort of had our wires crossed.