Just because you're discussing it seriously doesn't mean you take it at face value. Just look at discussions about fictional works, particularly SF.
If it isn’t true how is it relevant to anything?
It's just food for thought and discussion. Is it relevant whether Schrödinger actually put a cat in a box?
It's clearly being presented as a true story by the original source. If it's not true it's not food for any kind of thought it's just a really badly written and stupid short story. Stop trying to justify lying.
I'm feeling like Brian: https://youtu.be/9czBBKof7Yo?t=1m30s
If it's real you can wonder ok what motivated actual people to behave in this way, what actually happened?
If it is made up (which it almost certainly is because it's so far fetched and ridiculous) then it has zero value. There's nothing worth thinking about here or discussing if it didn't actually happen. Like I said it's just a really poorly written short story.
You don't discuss literature the same way you discuss journalism. I can't believe you don't already know that?