Doyle can write about a wider variety of characters, settings, and problems than would have been possible if Holmes only worked for clients who could pay a fee commensurate with his services. He has enough wealthy clients to earn all the money he needs. In one story, "The Adventure of the Priory School," a nobleman writes Holmes a check for six thousand pounds as a reward. This would be equivalent in buying power to at least a million of today's American dollars.

Holmes obviously does not expect to make any money off the problem brought to him by Jabez Wilson. Doyle has taken pains in many of his Sherlock Holmes stories to show that the great detective has other motives besides money for helping clients, and Wilson has probably informed him before Watson's arrival that he can't afford to pay. Holmes likes mental challenges. He also likes to help people in trouble. He sometimes finds, as he does in this story, that apparently trivial problems can have very complex ramifications and implications. At the very end of the story he tells Mr. Merryweather that he will not charge the bank for saving their French gold except to be reimbursed for some petty expenses.