It seems ridiculous in this modern age, but there are a huge number of people who will never bother to look into their problems on their own before asking someone else. Then this other person does a simple Google search and becomes the hero expert.

This all too often results in further dependence, with no real reward for the guy who took this basic step except more requests in the future. If this one guy can get a day off in this instance, it'll be a victory for every person who has ever said "Oh, if you google that, you'll see one of the first results with instructions to do x, y, z." to a time-draining coworker.