We know from the General Prologue that the Pardoner is corrupt, "Upon a day he gat hym moore moneye / Than that the person gat in monthes tweye; / And thus, with feyned flaterye and japes, / He made the person and the peple his apes." (L. 702). Yet, his direct admission of fraud, and greed is nonetheless shocking, "Is al my prechyng, for to make hem free / To yeven hir pens, and namely unto me. / For myn entente is nat but for to wynne, / And nothyng for correccioun of synne." (L. 401). He Reemphasizes this corruption and hypocrisy with his actions and his tale. Before he even begins his tale he states, "I graunte, ywis," quod he, "but I moot thynke / Upon som honest thyng while that I drynke." (L. 327) and then goes on to give a literal sermon on the harms of drinking and intoxication. However, his tale of the three men who come across the gold and are eventually each killed as a result of their avarice is an especially good tale that conveys the danger of avarice. That the Pardoner has already admited that he uses tales such as this to obtain money shows truly how skilled he is, and by extension how talented the poet is to weave such a richely textured character. That he ends by trying to show/pawn his relics adds one final characteristic to the Pardoner: stupidity, for he has already informed the entire group of his modus operandi yet still tries to push his fraud on them.