The father of one of the youths involved in a dine-and-dash incident at a Msida establishment last week has apologised to the owner and settled the unpaid bill by donating €250 to a Gozitan charity at the restaurateur's suggestion. 

The owners of the Italian restaurant Pasta and Co. told Times of Malta that five youths, aged around 17 years, ordered and ate a meal and then ran away without paying on Friday afternoon. 

One of the Sicilian owners recognised the youths as fellow Sicilians and said they spoke in a dialect typical of Ragusa.

The restaurant’s co-owner contacted Il Corriere Di Ragusa which then carried a news report on the incident. 

After reading the article, a man recognised his son from the pictures and contacted the owners to settle the bill. 

"He was very apologetic and offered to pay the €100," the owner told Times of Malta on Monday. 

"We told him to make a donation to Fondazzjoni Arka in Gozo and gave him their IBAN number. He called back and instead he donated €250."

Arka Foundation is a church-run voluntary, non-governmental organisation that houses people with disabilities and promotes their welfare.

The owner also told Times of Malta that an Italian 'knight of Malta' based in Ragusa had also called him after seeing the article, wishing to settle the bill. He told him it had already been settled, but also suggested to him to make a donation to Arka, and he agreed.

The story echoes a similar one in Albania recently when Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni personally paid a bill of about $87 when four holidaying Italians were involved in a dine-and-dash incident in Berat, which was widely reported in Albania.