For though myself be a ful vicious man,
A moral tale yet I yow telle kan,
Which I am wont to preche for to wynne.
Now hoold youre pees! My tale I wol bigynne.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. There is a great irony in a Pardoner who admits that he is a very wicked and sinful man offering to tell the pilgrims a moral tale – in this case against greed. And without charge, for he is accustomed to preaching such tales for profit, he says, unashamedly admitting that he earns money from the proceeds of sin.