Why might the state of mind of hypocritical Buddhist scholar be considered “contaminated”?

"as patricia rolled her eyes, dave stared at her, trying to discern whether she'd been lying. ' that stuff about the sleepwalking. was true? ' 'oh yeah,' carlos said, shaking his head. 'whole town seems to be coming down with it.' he paused. 'you're not scared of the dark, are you? ' what feeling does the author create by ending the story with this question