Anyhow, I don't think being "rich" has anything to do with it. I've been hit up for gil on my level 10 mule before, so I think it's simply someone looking for a free ride.
XFantasyX followed me around Jeuno for almost an hour the other day, demanding that I help him with papyrus for Genkai 1. When I refused, it was once again, you guessed it, *my* problem.
I was walking in Bastok awhile ago and this guy asked for 5K to help with his mission 2-3 I believe, where you buy fetich bodyparts. I didn't want to give him gil. I mean...that's plain too easy.
So I gave him my spare crystals and because none of them were in stacks I told him to sell them one by one on the AH. LOL I didn't want to let off anyone that easily so yeah. Spare crystals and other useless junk (like 3 treant bulbs that I picked off from training into Bastok)
That'll teach him that patience is the key to making gil ^_^;