You pretend to be a fool in order to protect yourself. You have many enemies who wanted to take everything, money, business you had. So you pretend to be a fool to look for a man who would help you.

as you were playing with a paintbrush on the side of the road near your place, he saw you and approached you and lifted you.

"What are you doing here?"

you have meet him before, he saved your life from one of your enemy.