The teller and tale are necessarily inseparable. No tale is told without a teller. If the teller has no tale, he cannot tell. These two elements, though, cannot exist alone. A telling presupposes a listening.
Nothing is told if no one hears.
Again the theories provide some insight into the priest's segment. As a teller, his tale goes on in the absence of any listener, but for nought. It is not heard. A sound is only truly a sound in its being heard. A story told without an audience may as well be a lonely tree in a very quiet forest.