One large difference between the scenarios is the answer to “what’s in it for the stranger?”
In the standard Pascal’s Mugging, the answer is “they get $5”. Clear and understandable motivation, it is after all a mugging (or at least a begging). It may or may not escalate to violence or other unpleasantness if you refuse to give them $5, though there’s a decent chance that if you do give them $5 then they’ll bug you and other people again and again.
In this scenario it’s much less clear. What they’re saying is obviously false, but they don’t obviously get much that would incentivize bugging you again if you pretend to agree with them. It’s a bit disconcerting that they’ve been tracking your movements every day, but it’s not like you particularly lose anything by not eating an apple that they’ve warned you against eating and you weren’t planning to eat anyway. Frankly, even without them claiming to own the apples, I’d be pretty disinclined to eat one that this stalker has pointed out to me.
One large difference between the scenarios is the answer to “what’s in it for the stranger?”
In the standard Pascal’s Mugging, the answer is “they get $5”. Clear and understandable motivation, it is after all a mugging (or at least a begging). It may or may not escalate to violence or other unpleasantness if you refuse to give them $5, though there’s a decent chance that if you do give them $5 then they’ll bug you and other people again and again.
In this scenario it’s much less clear. What they’re saying is obviously false, but they don’t obviously get much that would incentivize bugging you again if you pretend to agree with them. It’s a bit disconcerting that they’ve been tracking your movements every day, but it’s not like you particularly lose anything by not eating an apple that they’ve warned you against eating and you weren’t planning to eat anyway. Frankly, even without them claiming to own the apples, I’d be pretty disinclined to eat one that this stalker has pointed out to me.