The Pardoner, in the beginning of his tale, denounces the sins of drunkenness and gambling - misdeeds the 3 protagonists are engaged in. He then dedicates a large section of his tale to expounding on scripture and authorial texts in justification of his reproval of such sins. This builds the expectation that the focus of the tale will be about such sins and the punitive consequences of committing them. However, these sins do not feature at all in the tale, which is ultimately about betrayal arising from avariciousness. The relevance of the Pardoner's sermon is rendered highly dubious. This resonates with the Pardoner's prologue, which exposes how his sermons fail to practically relate to or resolve any of the difficulties of daily life - e.g. he advocates the mitigation of jealousy in spite of one's wife's flirtatiousness (cf. 366-369).

The underlying truth which recurs in both the Prologue and the tale is that avarice is the root of all evil - the creed of the undevout Pardoner. The Pardoner's tale and Prologue, through featuring excessive, deceitful and ultimately impotent religious teachings and authorial texts, question the legitamacy and relevance of such authorial figures in daily life.