How is that not what he just said?
Being a good sport, trying to diffuse the situation in the young man’s own words, during unexpected events beyond your experience sounds like courage to me.
The antics of Chief Crying Wolf would make a Gandhi-like stair impossible, but it is the same kind of passive-resistance in the face of an intractable enemy.
“Courage” isn’t really a good fit for what it is. There’s not necessarily danger or fear, just strangeness. Courage would be a more appropriate term if there were a clear threat.