The late medieval poem The Hermit and the Outlaw dates from the turn of the fourteenth century, and is preserved in two extant manuscripts. It is a straightforward exemplum, highly reminiscent of the parable of the prodigal son, concerning two brothers, one a ‘gode ermyte’ and the other a ‘wylde outlawe’ and ‘erraunt theff’. The bulk of the story follows the fate of the latter, who makes an ingenuous attempt to repent after encountering a pilgrim in the woods. The humor of his callowness and resistance to hard work eventually gives way to tragedy, however, as what was meant to be an easy penance becomes for him a matter of life or death. Determined to take no water – a drink he normally detests – the outlaw is subjected to intense thirst and is offered only water to slake it. Instead of succumbing to temptation, he opens his veins and drinks his blood, dying in this world but gaining life eternal. The hermit has a vision of his brother rising to heaven and, unaware of the circumstances of his death, bitterly compares his brother's life with his own:

God quickly upbraids the hermit for his resentfulness, and subsequent investigation reveals to him his brother's late conversion and the manner of his death. Reassured of the justice of his brother's salvation, the hermit lives out the rest of his days in devotion and eventually goes to heaven himself.