If I were a wayfarer visiting Shirdi during Baba's time, what kind of reception might I have expected based on the accounts in Chapter 29?

Based on the accounts in Chapter 29 of the Shri Sai Satcharita, your reception from Sai Baba as a wayfarer would have been entirely uncertain. While Baba was known to be the "embodiment of compassion" and would sometimes distribute money to travelers, this was not a guaranteed outcome. The text emphasizes that his manner was such that "nothing was ever fixed." You might have been one of the fortunate ones to receive money or a sweet, like the Ramdasi devotees, or you might have been sent back empty-handed. The chapter suggests that the outcome depended entirely on Baba's inscrutable mind and whether your "auspicious time had arrived" for such a blessing.