I would have strangled Bronson. Although he really didn't mean it, he just had his head in the clouds and couldn't concern himself with mere material things. He was practically an innocent -- there was a story that a confidence man told him a sob story and he gave the man all the money that he had, several hundred dollars (a lot of money back then) and the crook was so embarrassed he refused to take it.
As one of Kipling's characters said, "’Twas too dam’ like cheatin’ a suckin’ baby. My woman, she said so too."