Problem
You want to get the currently cached authenticated user.
But if there is no user cached, you do not want to attempt authentication.
Solution
Use the Auth::getUser() method.
$user = Auth::getUser();
if ( ! $user)
{
echo "No user is currently authenticated.";
}
Discussion
The Auth::getUser() and Auth::user() methods are slightly different.
That Auth::user() will attempt to authenticate a user from the session or the "remember me" cookie if there is not a user cached.
Auth::getUser() only returns a user if they've already been authenticated successfully.
