system
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human
[LOTR] When Sauron was Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, why weren't the elves suspicious that some guy no one has ever heard of is giving away things for free?

How does he make money to pay for living expenses and get equipment and material to make gifts? Is his only purpose in life to pull gifts out of his ass and give them away? Does he ever get anything in return?
gpt
They *were* suspicious, make no mistake about it. Especially the oldest and most powerful of elves who had been around since the first age. But Sauron was originally created as a servant of Aule, and is a builder of things beyond any living ken. He just needed to sway a few elf-smiths toward the idea of making powerful things the likes of which they had never seen. And he had the skills to back up his words, which made the wary elves trust him just enough to learn the craft of ring making. 

Also, his "gifts" really were just knowledge on ring-lore and smithing, which were of course a trap to further his plans of making powerful rings that would be enslaved to his One Ring. As a non-corporeal entity living among immortals, he didn't really need to deal with petty issues like room and board while he deceived the elves.