Be careful who you help...

Myself and a friend had been riding and were waiting for another to join us at a local gas station. We were sitting in the parking lot enjoying the weather, when we noticed a guy enter the parking lot, pushing a CBR.We approached him and offered help. He accepted and asked for a jump, which I happily obliged since my CX500C had an easily accessible (and enormous) battery.Since we didn't have any cables, he went inside to buy some, and returned shortly with the cables, some oil and coolant. Before trying for a jump he began checking the fluids, but it was clear he didn't know much about the bike, so we tried offering some guidance. He seemed to think the bike may be low on coolant or oil, and told us the bike had "just stopped", so we began some basic troubleshooting.The entire time he was working on the bike, he was chain-smoking cigarettes and rushing...all his movements were frantic and rushed, but he was friendly and just seemed distressed. He explained he'd just bought the bike and didn't know much about it or its history.The fluids seemed fine and so we attempted a jump, which only resulted in some labored cranks. We swapped my battery in and again only got a few labored cranks. We tried pop-starting in 2nd and 3rd, but the wheel would just lock up. Our friend (more experienced than us) showed up and offered his insight: the engine was seized, which is what we'd feared.We advised him not to try cranking it anymore to help preserve the block, and started trying to find arrangements for him to be towed. He said he didn't know anyone with a trailer, and so we tried calling some of our friends. The whole time he was just nervously chain-smoking cigarettes and trying to crank the bike, despite my repeated warnings not to. He went back into the gas station a few times, running back and forth each time, and brought us Gatorades (since we'd declined his offers of money for the help). It struck me as odd that he was running...he seemed so anxious, or at least in a rush.After a time I had to leave, and apparently my friends helped him stash the bike behind the gas station (with the owner's permission) and gave him a ride home to [pretty-far-away-town].A few days later we were back at the same gas station. I went inside to buy a drink and the clerk recognized me and motioned me over and asked if I had helped a guy with a disabled bike. Then came the shocker:Apparently the CBR guy had come back a day or so later, during the night, and pulled the plate off the bike. Out of concern, the clerk called the police and asked them to check on the bike. They ran the VIN, and found it to be stolen from [other-VERY-far-away-town].The police called a local tow company to have the bike brought back to the owner and while they were loading it, CBR guy pulled in to the gas station, got out of his friend's car, saw the cops, and made a hasty retreat.I shared this story as a cautionary tale, but I'm not really sure there's a moral to it. I'm a new rider, and I've been floored by how friendly, accepting and helpful the motorcycle community is. I don't mean this story to discourage anyone, and I'm certainly not going to stop helping disabled riders and drivers. I will perhaps be a bit more careful, but unfortunately there are shit people out there, and they sometimes cannot be avoided.I'm glad this dude wasn't violent, and didn't hurt me or my friends (especially when they were giving him a ride home), and my heart goes out to whoever he stole this bike from.Ride safe, be safe, take care.TL;DR: We helped a dude with a broken-down CBR, turns out he stole it. People suck. via /r/motorcycles https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcycles/comments/8iqguv/be_careful_who_you_help/?utm_source=ifttt