Have you ever ignored potentially helpful advice just in case the person was trying to trick you?

"Why would you think someone is trying to trick you?" you might ask. Well let me tell you a story. The other night I was driving a public service bus (as I do) and when stopped at a red light I heard this guy in the lane next to me (in a car) shouting "you dropped your keys". Initially I wasn't even sure where the voice was coming from but I immediately felt irritated by it. I opened the window more and said "what?". He again repeated the same. The only thing that flashed through my mind was a set of keys that were stuck into the assault screen window of another bus I'd been driving a few days earlier, that someone left behind.

Anyway, I was instantly aware that my own car keys were in my backpack, and that in the remote change that a key did fall out the window, that it wouldn't have been mine. I asked "you're saying my keys are on the ground?". He then said "no, your fuel cap". I thought maybe I'd heard him wrong the first time. I knew something seemed off about this and as I looked down I clearly couldn't see anything. I said "are you saying it rolled under the bus?" where I wouldn't be able to see it. He answered "yeah". I just couldn't help but think "what if he's actually being genuine and there is something on the ground?". But I thought to myself that it wasn't worth it... that even if there was something on the ground I knew it wouldn't affect me in anyway.

Once I decided this I was able to react better. I said "first you say it's my keys and then you say it's the fuel cap, can't you make up your mind?". He then dropped the act and just yelled expletives. It clicked with me about a minute later that this guy was actually on the bus I was driving two days before and was causing me grief... told me he hopped that I crash the bus before leaving. Man, there's some nasty people out there.

Would you be quick enough to spot a trickster like this? Or have you had any experiences yourself?

 

its not a matter of ignoring what you've already heard and are familiar with, to independently seek independent verification.
we don't live in a universe where anything other then the unknown being unknown is that completely reliable.

it makes even less sense to take anything for granted, nor is even rationally cautious, then to ignore needless risks.
nor does it make sense to allow advice, however well intended, to cloud our judgement.
to do so only increases needless risk, and does nothing to reduce it.

relying too much on advice, and too little on doing your own research and asking the next questions,
has gotten our world so much further as it has into the trouble that it is, had people never started hating logic and consideration.

so i'm sorry but i really don't believe any advice is that much trustworthy, other then the advice in general to exercise caution in all things.
least of all advice from anything it is claimed would wish to be feared.
that people have ever trusted anything they claimed wished to be feared is flat out having been brainwashed.

(as for situations that involve dealing with people, i'm glad you're driving that bus and i'm not)

(all i can do is take it the most people mean well most of the time, but there's always some who live in a cultural trap, surrounded by anger, paranoia, and just not understanding that reality offers other and diverse possibilities.)

(i feel sorry for people like that, but i am no end of thankful, i don't have to live with any of them)