Similar story in Fall of '92. I was a freshman in college and this dude, Nikolai, down the hall in the dorm was one of two guys from Vladivostok on a program. Most of us in the hall bonded very quickly including Nikolai. One day, a smaller group among us were talking and somehow the topic of his cologne came up. It smelled literally like ammonia.
We wanted to give him something else, but how do you do that without being offensive? One guy had a plan. When Nikolai was showering in the hall showers, this guy went in and stole Nikolai's cologne and tossed it. The next day, he was puzzled as to who stole his cologne. We said, "it's alright, we'll get you a replacement" and took him to the mall to one of those booths with knockoff designer perfume and cologne.
The guy was just in awe of the whole place. Eyes wide open, looking at every store. At the cologne place, first sample he smelled, he lit up, smiled, and said, "Yes, this is much better than my old cologne."
The guy that tossed his old one paid like the $20 for the bottle.
Later, it turned out the guy got his girlfriend pregnant on the night he left for the US, and had to go back to marry her after the semester. Such a bummer. Hope he's doing well with a nice family because he was such a friendly and fun guy.