The way it should work is that you get the quest. Quest description says to talk to the guy. Then you talk to the guy, and he tries to recruit you to Zurhidon. You refuse, at which point he tells you to open the chest. You open it, get jumped by Zurhidon agent, kill him. Then quest giver runs away and leaves his bag.
Did you try to open the chest before you talked with him? That is only thing I can think of that could go wrong.
-- Rustyx --- 92R / 92S / 92M on Reni (Guild KnightShift). Yes, running the new FOTM R/M, cause I am not elf enough to be WD/S.
Oh, and people who have more than 3 classes are clinically insane.