The Reeve's Tale presents the tricking on a highly comic level. In The Pardoner's Tale, on the other hand, the tricking is used as an exemplum, or a moral fable, embodying the concept that "The love of money is the root of all evil." To illustrate his theme, the Pardoner tells the tale of three drunks who want to find Death and slay him. Instead, they find a basket of gold. The youngest reveler is sent to fetch food, wine, and water to serve them until dark so that they can dig up the gold without being discovered. On his way to the village, the youngest reveler decides to trick the other two and puts poison into their wine. Meanwhile the two back at the tree decide to kill the youngest reveler and divide his gold between them. When the young reveler returns, he is killed, and the other two unknowingly drink the poisoned wine. Thus the three men do indeed find Death, which was their initial goal.
While The Pardoner's Tale involves tricking, it is not a comic one. Instead this tale serves to support the moral that greed is the source of all evil. The irony of this tale is that, after the Pardoner finishes his tale, he tries to trick the pilgrims into buying his worthless pardons, but he is unable to trick the more realistic pilgrims, and his life is threatened. While we laugh at the person being tricked in The Reeve's Tale, The Pardoner's Tale leaves no room for laughter.
