The Podner

The Pardoner was kind of feminine and a shamelessly immoral man. The Pardoner doesn't really like himself but is devoted to his task of defrauding people of their money by making them believe that they have sinned and need to buy pardons. The Pardoner has long, greasy, yellow hair and is beardless.

The Pardoner is about three young men who spend much of their time in revelry. They are three rioters who did nothing but engage in irresponsible and sinful behavior. One day as three men are taking part in gambling and drunkenness, they hear a funeral passing outside the Inn. They ask a servant who has died. He responds by saying that it is a friend of the three men who was stabbed in the back by a thief called Death. He has killed many in the neighborhood recently. The three men decide to try to find this thief, and they went out in pursuit.

On the way they meet an extremely old man dressed in rags. He explains that he has been cursed to wander the earth until he can find a youth who will change places with him. He goes on to say that not even Death will take his life. The three men ask the old man if he has seen Death, and he responds that he was last seen under the tree at the end of the lane.

When they found the tree they only found bushels of gold. They decide to take the treasure and divide it evenly, but realize that if they immediate went into town with it they would be presumed robbers. They draw straws to see who will go into town to obtain food and beverages, and the youngest is given this task. When he has gone, the two that are left decide that they will murder him when he returns and keep the gold for themselves. The youngest of the three decides to poison the food he brings to the other two and keep the gold for himself. When he gets back the two rioters stabbed him, murdering him. The other two rioters drank the poisoned wine and died themselves.