Money and the greed it inspires are the major motives for corruption for the characters in the story. The novel shows how large amounts of money can act as a temptation for almost anyone and explores the boundaries of moral fortitude and weakness. The Partner asks the question of whether money corrupts or whether a person’s internal corruption will make them susceptible.

In order to explore this theme, the novel sets up numerous equivalent moral dilemmas where characters are tempted by the pursuit of money. Benny Aricia was dissatisfied with his position in his company. When he realized that Platt & Rockland was already defrauding the government, the prospect of getting in on the scam tempted him to cross the line himself. He was inspired by Platt & Rockland but conceived his own plot out of pure greed. Benny then tempted Patrick’s law firm. They weren’t particularly dishonest at the outset; they were successful enough to be more than comfortable, but the opportunity for major-scale corruption hadn’t crossed their path yet. Once it did, they easily fell in with the fraud and brought in Senator Nye, who for 10 million was willing to participate. Stephano has no moral limits in order to please his clients and be paid.