I did generally wonder what might have happened if that original prompt had said Reno and not Rude. Because Reno would try to help the boy guy eventually, but you know he'd make up something crazy first just to see if Rufus would believe him.

Frankly if I was one of the Turks I wouldn't be able to resist the temptation.

As for Rufus never remembering who he was, I'm not sure whether that would end up well or not. There's enough of him left that he would probably know if people were telling him something too off the mark, and just not knowing would probably make him remarkably paranoid after a while. But maybe it could work out.