I came upon this answer with bounty awarded which I found little weird since I cannot see who awarded the bounty.
From the screenshot above, there is no reference to who awarded them.. I have read how bounty system works. And few things I can deduce from that..
- Since it displays +500 and not +0, it means its not self assignment of bounty. Someone else awarded the bounty.(Note its OP's self answer to his question).
- Since, maximum bounty is awarded i.e. +500. Then its not automatic awarded(So, Community user is not involved in foul play here.)
The only thing I can guess is that maybe the user who awarded the bounty got deleted, but even in this case I would I expected "This answer has been awarded bounties worth 500 reputation by userXXXXXX" i.e. with his unique id.
Note:- This is an old answer...