A very interesting debate.
As a rule, my advice would be pay for nothing...., unless you really really have to.
As a previous poster has mentioned, rocks and things are thrown at as Faranjies in Ethiopia in the hope we will give them pens and sweets like the UN people did...

I used to work for one of the overland companies - and spent 2 years in the Indian Subcontinent. During that time we had a couple of accidents ( not me I might add, just fellow company drvers - thank my lucky stars).

In one a driver hit and killed a pedestrian, who died immediately. A huge crowd gathered and after about 2 hours of discussions and the police providing "protection",a fee of USD200 was agreed to carry the body home and pay for the funeral.

A few months later another driver kit and killed two oxen which ran onto the road. The short story of this - the driver was arrested and spent several months in jail, a fee of USD 3000ish was paid to the owner of the cattle. The company spent several £1000's paying for solicitors, and eventually the driver was smuggled out of India, and a warrant for his arrest probably still exists in India. He was a very experinced driver with over 10 years experience on the road in Asia, Africa and South America....so this could happen to any one of us...

So remember, different cultures place different values on similar events. No matter how good and experinced you are, the sh*t can always hit the fan, and if you have to pay, you pay - simple.

Keep travelling, and keep safe.

Graham