A Simple Favor

Today at work, a guy came up to the register, and told me that he had just ordered a mocha, but it had spilled in his cart outside. I looked outside, and saw there was a shopping cart, with a few odds and ends and a couple small cloth bags in it. It had no visible sign of spillage, and the ground was dry; if he had spilled something, he did an amazing job at cleaning up. I began to wonder if he was lying to me. I looked through the previous drink list, and didn't see any orders for a mocha in the recent history. I asked him what his name was, and he said "oh I'm a friend of that guy that was just in here. It was his drink." Now, the guy that was just in here, named Tony, had ordered a large white mocha. Tony also didn't really seem to notice that this other guy even existed. I looked at the bum who was trying to scam a free drink off us, and asked him what the name of that last guy was. His response was predictably non-committal: "oh, that guy that was just in here." By this time, after these few simple tests, I was fairly sure he was trying a scam. I asked him one final question: "did you keep the cup?". And, surprise, he said he had already thrown it away.
Now at this point, I had a decision to make, with two very clear choices, and only a split second to make it. I chose to buy into the whole thing, and make him a drink. I didn't make him a large white mocha though, I gave him a medium mocha. I gave him the drink, and told him to have a good day. He smiled, said thanks, and began to fill up a cup for water. I continued on working on other drinks, and he stood there for quite a while stirring his drink. Things quieted down, and I could tell he wanted to say something, but couldn't seem to muster the courage to catch my attention verbally, so he was waiting to make eye contact. I figured the only way I'll get this guy on his way is to make eye contact, so I looked at him. He had a one-dollar bill in his hand. He set it down on the counter and said "here's a tip man, thanks for the drink". I nodded, smiled and hoped he'd have a good day. I put the dollar in the tip jar, and he went on his way.
I knew he was scamming, and I think he knew I knew he was scamming. I did him a favor of giving him something to drink anyway, which is all he was after. And he felt grateful, and decided to provide a bit of compensation.
And that was my story for the day. Enjoy.