What would most people's reaction have been to meeting this stranger? Why doesn't Tom react this way? (the devil and tom walker)

Most people would run from a stranger that they believed to be the devil. The reason Tom Walker stays to converse with Old Scratch is the fault of his greed. Tom desires the treasure Old Scratch has promised him. Though Tom initially refuses the treasure to spite his wife, he eventually makes a deal with the devil after his wife is killed.