Because sometimes learning to survive on your own merit will come in use. When I was a boy, I learned quickly that the only way we were going to eat is if I hunted around to find something on my own.

[He had eaten a lot of vermin as a boy. His family was very poor, and he was just another mouth to feed after a fourteen-hour shift in the fissures. He had to learn to contribute or go hungry quickly. It's why he never, ever forgot where he came from, and it's where he learned the gift of trading up.]

But the use of freely given information should never be discounted. We should be cautious though. Everyone here is a criminal, no?

[Criminality had very little weight in the undercity. It was a free city that traded in all manner of goods that others would consider illegal or elicit. There were rules, but loyalty had once bound them together. In the end, it was about survival and profiting even at the cost of the weak.]

I don't want you to go hungry.