  The discovery of lithium-rich giants contradicts expectations from canonical
stellar evolution. Here we report on the serendipitous discovery of 20 Li-rich
giants observed during the Gaia-ESO Survey, which includes the first nine
Li-rich giant stars known towards the CoRoT fields. Most of our Li-rich giants
have near-solar metallicities, and stellar parameters consistent with being
before the luminosity bump. This is difficult to reconcile with deep mixing
models proposed to explain lithium enrichment, because these models can only
operate at later evolutionary stages: at or past the luminosity bump. In an
effort to shed light on the Li-rich phenomenon, we highlight recent evidence of
the tidal destruction of close-in hot Jupiters at the sub-giant phase. We note
that when coupled with models of planet accretion, the observed destruction of
hot Jupiters actually predicts the existence of Li-rich giant stars, and
suggests Li-rich stars should be found early on the giant branch and occur more
frequently with increasing metallicity. A comprehensive review of all known
Li-rich giant stars reveals that this scenario is consistent with the data.
However more evolved or metal-poor stars are less likely to host close-in giant
planets, implying that their Li-rich origin requires an alternative
explanation, likely related to mixing scenarios rather than external phenomena.
