A great adventurer of the last century, who walked one step at a time from the Mediterrenean coast down the entire length of Africa to the Cape of Good Hope, wrote that the one eternal, adamantine rule of travel is just this: "You meet your mood". Your encounter with the tea guy was merely a reflection of your own fear, grief, conceit, judgmental attitude, arrogance, moralistic pseudo-piety and general distaste for life. He was a mirror thrown up by your own mind. Buddhism 101. I know you’re thinking this is callous. Solopsistic. But you didn’t do that guy any favors by mirroring back, with feedback gain, his own extreme fear. You two were magnetized to one another. Nothing wrong with that. Own it and go have some fun experimenting with the traveler's principle above.