Two thousand years ago, a rabbi named Ben Zoma outlined the difference between a grateful and un-grateful guest.
As he explains, a grateful guest who comes to dinner will say, “How much trouble did my host take for me! How many kinds of wine did he bring before us! How many kinds of cuts [of meat] did he bring before us…and all the trouble that he took for me!” However, an ungrateful guest will say, “How little trouble did this household take…I ate only a loaf of his bread. I drank only a cup of his wine. He went to all this trouble only to provide for his wife and children” (Tosefta Berachot 6:2).
