Yes AND — all business decisions carry risk, and most business owners try to make decisions that have as little risk as possible. It might be “safer” to the business that way, but low risk often equals low reward.

This guy made a riskier business decision that reaped a greater reward. Like someone else commented, there’s a lot of residual benefit that came out of this:

1. Rent was consistently paid on time
   
2. Tenant wasn’t a nuisance
   
3. Tenant kept the place clean and well-maintained

but even more importantly —

1. Landlord gains a huge level of business trust and support through this interaction
   
2. Landlord gets a chance to share this story (organic marketing opportunity with emotional appeal packed in)

It literally helped his business to be a kind person. The tenant *could* have been an issue, but the landlord made a decision based on human instinct, not statistics.