Weird coffee shop guy

There is this sort of lonely old guy who comes into the coffee shop where I work on the three days a week while M. is in his afternoon daycare. He's disheveled and sort of hard to understand, and shuffles in every day to get a coffee. Sometimes he gets a cup of ice and goes outside and throws it, piece by piece, into the street. What amazes me is how many of the coffee shop patrons take time out to talk to him. Most of the people at this cafe are young, professional types who are doing work, but they take 15-30 minutes to chat with this weird, sad dude. It restores my faith in people a little bit.