I can believe a corrupt official would reach out to a random person for help, just not that they would have any intention of honoring the bargain. I'd be worried about being killed as a loose end more than anything.
"I can believe a corrupt official would reach out to a random person for help"
Why is that? I would have thought that a corrupt official would be reaching out to his cronies, friends, cousins, etc. when he needed help with a scam.
Ease of denying it. Ease of eliminating them. There are stories from my friends in South America of cocaine being slipped into bags before travelling through security, hoping innocent random tourists will be caught and they can push large quantities through in the aftermath. Also, I would assume cronies would be involved in finding and setting up a random person.
