Finish mess up

Got a call last night from a friend who had received the old roll top desk that he and his siblings had used to do homework when he was a kid. The finish was much abused but he didn't want of refinish it unless it was absolutely necessary to do so and asked if I knew any way to "clean up the finish". I told him to take some denatured alcohol, lacquer thinner, mineral spirits, etc.. and rub a area that wouldn't show with each one and see which one didn't ruin the finish and cleaned it best. After doing this he found that denatured alcohol did the job, but being out of denatured alcohol he went and use rubbing alcohol to do the job. Now he is mad at me because the entire surface of the desk has a white haze on it. Can you ever win? I made it worse by laughing when he told me what he had done, sometimes just can't control myself.