Taco Bell Settles Suit With Hindu Over Meal Order

Yo quiero bean burrito. Not beef burrito.

Taco Bell has paid a confidential sum to settle a lawsuit by a devout Hindu who sued the fast-food chain for serving him a beef burrito rather than the bean one he ordered.

The company settled the suit filed by Mukesh K. Rai, 33, of Carpinteria as the case approached trial in Ventura County Superior Court last month.

Rai said that biting into the beef burrito and chewing the meat violated his religious scruples. The “trauma” caused him to seek advice from his spiritual guru in Britain and eventually to journey to India to purify himself by bathing in the holy waters of the Ganges River.

Rai had filed suit after Taco Bell refused to give him a refund or apologize for the April 1997 incident. He was seeking as much as $144,000 for his expenses and damages.

“The principles to me are far more important than the actual settlement,” Rai said Wednesday. “But Taco Bell has trivialized the importance of this suit. They still haven’t shown any remorse whatsoever.”

Taco Bell’s attorney did not return a call seeking comment.