Morals in an old folktale

[Siegmund]

Just a light philosophical diversion, for anyone who'd like a twisted puzzle that predates Sklansky's birth. It's part of an old German legend from the Middle Ages. Here it is, stripped down to its bare essentials:

A rich man's wife is pronounced dead.

Before she is buried, her husand puts a very expensive ring on her finger, saying "I gave this to her to keep, not just loaned it to her for a few years." His children protest he is giving away their inheritance; the businessmen protest he is throwing away good money; the priest points out she can't "take it with her" and make any use out of it. He insists; the coffin is closed.

The priest thinks about this the rest of the day. First he thinks of all the orphans that ring would feed if it were sold. Then he thinks of the life of luxury he could have if it were sold and kept the proceeds.

At midnight he gives in to the temptation of greed, goes outside into the graveyard, and reopens the coffin. As he reaches for the ring, the woman's body moves and tries to sit up. The priest runs away in a panic, leaving the ring on her finger.

As it happens, she had been in a coma, not dead, and the cold night air revived her when the coffin was opened. She extricates herself from the winding sheet, crawls up out of the grave, goes home, and lives happily many more years.

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So... 1) is the priest a Good Man(tm), having saved a woman's life, or a Bad Man(tm), having tried to steal a fortune from her?
2) is the husband a Good Man(tm), for his loyalty to his dead wife's memory which brought him a surprising reward, or a Bad Man(tm) for acting so irrationally about his valuables, and doing something which (had it not been undone) would have left him, his children, AND the church orphans all worse off?

[guesswest]

1. As is the case in life, outside of Hollywood movies with theatrical good/bad guys, a mixture of both. The fact that he had conflicting motives is pointed out in your summary. That he saved the woman's life is irrelevant on both counts, since it wasn't his intention.
2. He's certainly not 'bad' for leaving the ring. You could maybe argue he's stupid, but we normally think of someone as 'bad' or 'good' based on motives, not on results.

[luckyme]

Priest - 'good' is about intent, not resultmerchanting.
Man - if he was bad in her death, he was likely bad in her life. Iow, either he's responsible for the plight of orphans or he isn't. Having your wife walk around with orphan-saving jewelery seems only a nit-pick away her being dead with it.
Looking at it as a 'ring/orphan' situation depends on removing our human 'love/committment/memory/self-respect' aspects. I'd likely be swayed to giving it away, but the more honorable he was in his life the more I could respect his desire not to.