Restaurant Owner Offers Job To Kids Who Tried To Burn The Place Down

After a gaggle of hoodlum kids set his restaurant on fire, Fennel Restaurant owner William Bird had an unusual reaction: He offered to hire the perpetrators. Bird, who owns and operates the restaurant in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, discovered the small blaze on Sunday evening. He believes that the youths responsible were in a group of kids aged 13 or 14. But, in an astounding offer on social media, he wants to offer the perpetrators a lesson — a day's worth of good, honest labor instead of typical punishment, according to the BBC.

"To the two young lads who tried to set a fire at Fennel, I'm offering you a job," Bird dared in a social media video post posted this week. "Come see inside, what we do, the real lives of the men and woman who work here, whose livelihoods depend on what we do, the innocent diners, locals you put at risk. I dare you, come work for me. It's not for the faint-hearted, takes something pretty special. Think you're up to it, gentlemen?"

He specified that the youths would get paid for a day's work as kitchen porters, and emphasized that shaping the arsonists' futures was more important at this time than shunning them.

"People are all too quick to say 'hang 'em high' rather than make a difference and help," Bird said. "We can change their direction."