I am curious why they didn't lean into the poison hypothesis and explain that if this rock had brought poison then by removing it and taking it away they would

I am curious why they didn't lean into the poison hypothesis and explain that if this rock had brought poison then by removing it and taking it away they would take away the source of the poison. That said, these kinds of situations get oddly weird. When visiting a friend in Brazil they recounted a story of being on a tour boat that took tourists to coastal features. At some point the pilot offered to let the friend steer the boat at which point the captain came out and accused him of trying to steal his boat. Its a pretty transparent scam but oddly effective. We both remarked at how the 'everything is a scam' mindset can take hold and you have to be really really careful about everything you do in order to avoid giving advantage to another person who will try to defraud you in some way.