I remember when I was a kid, vacationing out west with my family. I painstakingly selected a turquoise ring at a little shop and as the deal was wrapping up, the shopkeeper plucked a smaller ring from the case and gave it to me as a gift; a "lagniappe." Wikipedia says a lagniappe is " 'a small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase' (such as the 13th beignet when buying a dozen), or more broadly, 'something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure.' "
Sure enough.
A fabulous friend introduced me to the term recently -- apparently it's very much of a Louisiana thing -- but I've been the happy recipient of a lagniappe many times!
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