What nedeth it to sermone of it moore?
For right as they hadde cast his deeth bifoore,
Right so they han hym slayn, and that anon.
And whan that this was doon, thus spak that oon:
"Now lat us sitte and drynke, and make us merie,
And afterward we wol his body berie."
And with that word it happed hym, par cas,
To take the botel ther the poyson was,
And drank, and yaf his felawe drynke also,
For which anon they storven bothe two.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. The Pardoner poses the rhetorial question as to whether he needs to expound more on the tale of the rioters, then tells of the tragic consequences to their greed. The youngest on his return with the wine and food is slain by the other two. Before they bury his body they decide to make merry with the wine. But as it is laced with poison, they too die. And so the Old Man turned out to be right, the three rioters found Death under the tree. And so the moral of the tale: greed is the root of all evil, and the wages of sin is death. Chaucer also adds his own moral to it: beware of hypocrites, like the greedy Pardoner.