Monk monkey in the middle or Tit for tat

It was 200 years too early for "Neither a borrower no a lender be" but somehow Chaucer managed a new slant with the Shipman's Tale.  The only guy who is happy is the guy who is both a borrower & a lender, the individual borrower & the individual lender mostly just get screwed.

Let me give you the highlights:

• There is a guy.  He wants to sleep with his friend-cousin's wife.  The friend-cousin is clueless, the wife slightly less so. 
  
  
• There is the wife.  Her husband makes plenty of money, in her view, for her to have nice things:  richer clothes, etc., but he is not so generous as she would like or even so generous as she has spent in a Chaucerian credit card debt kind of way.
  
  
• There is the husband.  He thinks the first guy is his friend.  He thinks he is happily married.

The story goes like this.  For a long time the first guy has been visiting his friend-cousin, eating his food, sleeping under his roof & lusting after his wife.  First friend-cousin aka Husband-friend-cousin sees nothing amiss in the longing looks his buddy casts his wife's way.  In fact, I never got that he even noticed.  I did not really even get that she much noticed.  Either my middle english is not great (which is true) or these two are quite the pair of rubes (also true).

One day, Husband-friend-cousin confides in Lecherous-friend-cousin that he 1) needs to go away on business 2) would like to park some cash somewhere short-term & 3) thinks his wife could stand to be watched.  Lecherous-friend-cousin says no problem & by the way he is temporarily light & maybe he could get a small loan...?  No problem right back at him, money moves from Husband-friend-cousin to Lecherous-friend-cousin & all is well when Husband-friend-cousin hits the road.

Lecherous-friend-cousin is happy to gift/loan same $$ to the wife & they have a wonderful athletic time together.  Husband-friend-cousin returns, Lecherous-friend-cousin leaves but not before a brief "where's my money?", "Why I gave it to your wife of course".  When the husband asks the wife what she did with it she says "Uhmmmmm I thought it was reimbursement for being such a lengthy house guest, but I will pay you back Husband by charging you for sex".  

Oh yea, Lecherous-friend-cousin, the guy who is both a borrower & a lender, the only wholly happy person in this tale:  he's a monk.