The Pardoner's Tale

The Pardoner, as he makes it clear in his prolugue, is a hypocrit.  He preaches about thed disasters of greed in order to cheat people out of their money.  After he is done telling his tale, he tries to convince his fellow pilgrims to give him their money in exchange for a "pardon," which he has already told them is fake.  I did not understand why he tried to trick the pilgrims into giving him an offering when he already told them that he was a fraud.  Did he really believe the pilgrims were stupid enough to pay for a pardon when he had already divulged all the secrets of his scam?  In the prologue of the Miller and the Pardoner, they both admit to being drunk, and sinning plays a large role in both the tales.  Drinking seems to be a bad sin that always causes trouble, as the Pardoner describes it in his tale; there is no difference "betwix a man that is out of his minde and a man which that is dronkelewe."  Religion reappears in this tale.  The three "ryotoures" end up dying in the story because of their greed and their sins; however, the Pardoner, who is equally greedy and sinful, does not have any bad consequences occur to him.  I cannot tell if Chaucer sees religion as a powerful force that one should follow or not.