I recall a reasonably similar incident when I was a kid, where we were taking fruit, with permission, from a farmer's trees and setting up a little roadside tab

I recall a reasonably similar incident when I was a kid, where we were taking fruit, with permission, from a farmer's trees and setting up a little roadside table to sell it from. We damaged his fence and he told us to screw off. I ran home and complained to my father, who said, "Yeah, that's not right at all, I'll talk to him." I thought I was golden and that mean old guy was gonna get what was coming to him. It was only the next morning when my dad sent me back off to that farm that I learned he wasn't telling the farmer off, he was telling the farmer we'd be back to work the fields for a day to pay him back for being little shits.