When you combine coffee with a poor understanding of economics, two things can happen: You feel smug and self-congratulatory, or you demonize the wrong person. Both happened at the same Starbucks this week, when a chain of 378 people “paying it forward” was supposedly broken by “some cheap-ass” in a white Jeep.

“Cheap Bastard Ends 10 Hours of Starbucks Customers ‘Paying it Forward’” was Gawker’s headline summary of the event. The news, which began in a local paper, even made the Today show.

Everyone seems to misunderstand what’s actually happening during these “pay-it-forward” chains, which occasionally develop at this and other coffee joints. So let’s break it down, at the end of which you’ll understand this: The woman in the white Jeep is innocent. And nobody involved in these chains should be overly pleased with themselves.

Here’s how these chains work: Some generous customer, feeling moved by whatever motivational book they just read, pays for a drink and then gives Starbucks some extra money and says they’re paying for the next customer’s drink. In this week’s case, the Tampa Bay Times explains what happened next:

People ordered a drink at the speaker. When they pulled through to the next window, the barista, Vu Nguyen, 29, leaned through and said with a smile that their drinks had already been paid for by the person in front of them. Would they like to return the favor?

Of course, this new customer–let’s call her Customer Two–doesn’t want to be the jerk that doesn’t return the favor. But this is also the easiest favor to return, because no favor is actually required. Customer Two already planned to pay for a drink; but now, given this scenario, when she pays for her drink, she can feel that she is technically paying for the drink of the person behind her. It’s charity for the same cost of treating yourself!

Here’s the thing, though: Technically, Customer Two was always just paying for herself. When Customer Zero started the chain and put down the original money, that person functionally set up the world’s smallest escrow account inside that Starbucks. The money then sat there unclaimed, as each successive customer opted instead to pay for their own drink.