Beating Bad With Good

Social worker Julio Diaz was walking home from work one night when a teenager approached him, drew a knife and demanded his wallet. Diaz promptly handed the wallet right over, which is what they tell you to do, but everything after that was just insanely improvised. If you're already saying, "What did he do, hug the guy?" the answer is no -- he took it much, much further.

The Crazy Solution:
Right as the kid started to leave (this being the moment that anyone being mugged spends the whole mugging looking forward to), Diaz stopped him and, as he tells it, said, "You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."
Diaz reasoned that his attacker must have fallen on some pretty hard times, which is a fairly complex thought to have while being threatened with a knife, a situation where most people abandon reasoned introspection for trying not to shit themselves. When the confused boy hesitated at the turning of the tables, Diaz upped the ante even further by offering to buy them both dinner. Which the boy accepted, probably after checking to see if he had some kind of magic knife.

After eating, Diaz reminded the boy that he wouldn't be able to buy dinner if, you know, he didn't have a wallet. While the mugger could have taken this opportunity to flip the middle finger and flee the diner with the wallet and a full stomach, amazingly, he handed the wallet back to his former victim. Not only did Diaz pay the bill, but he then bought the mugger's knife off him for $20.