There is a story that when Chofetz Chaim was stuck in early USSR, he came to the local (Jewish) commissar and said to him – I don’t think I can move you to the teshuva, but when you’ll get to Olam Habo, you will be called to answer for your aveiros, and you will respond – I lived in a town where Chofetz Chaim lived, but he never gave me tochacha, maybe I would have done teshuva if he were to come. So, I came to take this excuse from you.
I presume this was taki an attempt to get some feelings out of this man.