Everyone regarded tax collectors to be thieves. Israelites who worked as Roman tax collectors additionally were considered to be traitors to the nation of Israel. The apostle Matthew worked as a tax collector before Jesus invited him to be his disciple. Many with leprosy are grotesquely deformed because the nerves of infected areas die, and they cannot feel in that area. If you cannot feel, you are not aware when injuries occur.
Neglected injuries produce the deformities.
You could not touch anything a leper touched. A leper had to warn anyone approaching them not to come closer. The third man is one of the two thieves who died beside Jesus at the crucifixion. At that point, the other thief rebuked this man, asked him did he not fear God, and acknowledged that they deserved their execution, but Jesus had done nothing wrong. Jesus promised him that he would be with Jesus in Paradise that very day.