Louis Schnitz and his wife, Lena, are proprietors of a small restaurant, and business is very, very poor; no one seems in need of food, and the only persons who enter the place are those who wish large bills changed. Even the animals plot against the German, for a dog contrives to steal from the counter a prime cut of beef. He and the wife are so angry they rush from the restaurant, determined to wreck vengeance on the guilty one. While passing a store where scales are displayed an idea occurs to him. He buys a pair and places them in his restaurant, and puts this notice in the window: "You pay 5 cents for each ounce gained; we pay you 10 cents for each ounce lost." This attracts the attention of a shabby man and he devises a plan to get the better of the German. He loads his pockets with brick, enters the restaurant and is duly weighed. He then orders his dinner and while the couple are preparing the food in the kitchen, he removes the bricks. On again being weighed, it is discovered that he is fifteen pounds lighter than before partaking of the hearty meal, and Schnitz is forced to pay him the sum of $24.00. After his departure the bricks are found under the table and Schnitz seeing the trick played on him gives chase, hurling the bricks as he runs. His wife follows, also armed with the heavy missiles, and, in her excitement, instead of hitting the man, she succeeds in breaking the window, and the fugitive escapes. The couple return weary after the long chase and decide the scheme is a failure, so remove the scale and sign, and substitute for the latter one that reads, "Meals, 15c." And business once more thrives and prosperity beams on the Germans.