Oh, yes, he should have thought of that column himself. Though it seems to be a safe assumption that anyone who gets these letters is eventually going to fulfill the request, if only to get the letters to stop. Which is why it's a problem that the letters keep coming. What might they cause someone to do out of desperation? (There was a time in his life when that question wouldn't have bothered him. How things have changed.) He already knows of at least one case of the letters causing someone to do something they wouldn't have done otherwise.

"I did what the letter asked. They had no intention of giving me the reward the letter offered."