He was just tired of the stink, made up a nice story to get you to quit. The other guys working the dock probably bought him a beer for succeeding.Nice FD gift indeed, that is a nice one.
I Smoked one for 15 years, till a co worker came running up to me one morning as their shifts started, he was crying, and babbling about the dream he'd had, it was of me at the funeral home in a casket, and the pipe had caused cancer, and my death, in his dream. I was near the shipping dock, smoking my pipe till he told me that, immediately I ran to the edge of the dock and threw it as far as I could into a desolate area. Been quit now 20+ years, but the urge of the flavor still hankers.