I’m a little leery of responding, because so far two threads in which I posted today were closed. So I’ll tread gingerly! 🙂
Perhaps I tend to see the goodness in people, but despite the mercenary considerations, and despite your very well stated logic, I still think it is likely the owner let them stay out of kindness, especially since they explained their predicament.
You do make sense, you really do. I just see people differently, and if evidence (I don’t mean courtroom admissible) justifies it, I usually attribute kind actions to good motives.