I too watched snippets of that episode yesterday--I'd seen the whole thing the last time it up was up on YouTube--and then dreamed last night about a silver-haired Culp who wondered where I had been all his life (though it didn't sound like such a cliche when he said it). If I recall correctly, I answered "Waiting for you." Fade to black.
And, Mona, I had exactly the same impression--he wasn't really fooled for a minute by the bluff; he was much too shrewd for that. It was a way of not only returning their property, but letting them imagine they had outsmarted him in the process--a magnanimous gesture all around.
Regards--