Drop another coin in the Karma bank, or taken as a fool?

So... yesterday I had just gotten to work and was doing the usual shift change bullshitting session with the morning bartender when a clean cut, relatively normal looking 40-something man came frantically up to the bar. He asked us if we were the bartenders, to which I replied some sarcastic "nope, we just hang out here" type of response. He started to walk away, so I stopped him, tried to explain that I was kidding, yada yada (possible mistake number one). He then asked if we could do him a favor, to which we asked what he needed (possible mistake number two). So the guy goes into a long story of how he was out walking around the mall and received a panicked phone call from his father urging him to come immediately to some hospital in Downey, where his mother had just been taken for some undisclosed medical emergency. According to normal looking man, he did not have his wallet on him and spoke with a cab driver whom told him that he would require advance pay for a distance so great. However, normal looking man without wallet had no way of paying for proposed cab fair, and after pleading his case with driver was able to arrange the ride for 1/3 fair upfront, the rest to be paid upon arrival to destination. So I say "so.... what exactly are you asking' (possible mistake number three). To which he says $40 for cab fair. OY OY OY. Other bartender and I are quite caught off guard and somewhat taken aback by this request, and yet, we both reach into our pockets! (possible mistake number four) So I, in an attempt to appeal to normal looking man's conscious tell him that we will help, not because I believe his story, but because I do believe in Karma. Man who's looking less normal then proceeds to praise us, bless us, render Christ's kindness upon us, etc, etc.... He asks for a pen, takes down our names, promises he's employed and has money but is in a jam, and that he will be back in the next couple days to repay us 3-fold. So, we hand the money over (possible mistake number five), and he leaves, still rendering blessings as he walks out, even stopping to tell the managers that in a dreary world people like us offer a ray of hope (EXACT WORDS!)....... We were baffled, to say the least, flabbergasted. Both of us left wondering what would posses us to give up what would amount to a third of the tips we each made that day to a half crazed man off the street.... I think it was the elaborateness of the story, or his innocent appearance. I don't know. Either we both scored major points with our collective higher powers yesterday, or we'll both end up a little richer, either way its one for the record books..... And if he does turn out to be a scammer, I ask you, what happened to good ol panhandling at gas stations, or holding a sign at the freeway offramp?! Only in Orange County does spare change become $40.


I'm not gonna lie, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the faith I have left in humanity.
(but don't get any ideas, I'm only fallin for this once)