There is a marvelous paradox in all this. As we have seen in this and the preceding three chapters, city dwellers work very hard at acquiring urban know-how so that they may either avoid the city altogether or adventure in it with a minimum of risk. And yet, here are these two improbable adventurers, hicks and eccentrics, illiterate in, or inattentive to, city ways. And what is their reward? Sometimes, at least, friendliness, protection, normalization. The most inept participants in the world of strangers are, on occasion, its most pampered citizens.

SEED: An article angle: unexpected rewards of vulnerability and incompetence in unfamiliar settings — why being a novice can elicit generosity from strangers.

Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order a…, loc. 1028