Is the engi surrender event a penalty for honesty?

I've run into this event a few times. There's an engi ship that automatically surrenders without a fight, saying something like "transfer of goods acceptable?" There are two choices, 1) to accept the surrendered goods, 2) to assure them that you mean no harm.

Every time this happens, I can't bring myself to take their stuff, so I choose the second option and they take off without another word.

Is there anything more to this event, or is the optimal choice always to accept their stuff?

Solution 1:

It's always better to accept the surrendered goods.

If you accept the surrendered goods, you get a standard reward of random level.

If you don't accept the goods, there's a 50% chance you get a standard reward of random level (i.e. the same thing), and a 50% chance they just leave.