How much money does one really need?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, please explain what Shri Ramakrishna meant by the following:

“One day a Marwari gentleman went to Sri Ramakrishna and asked him for permission to present him with some thousands of rupees. But the master had nothing but a stern refusal for this well-meant offer. He said, ‘I shall have nothing to do with your money; for if I accept it, my mind would always be dwelling on it.’ The gentleman then proposed to invest the amount in the name of one of Sri Ramakrishna’s relatives to be used by him for the Master’s service. To this, the Master replied, ‘No, it would be double-dealing. Moreover, it would always be in my mind that I am keeping my money with so-and-so.’ But the Marwari still persisted in his proposal, quoting one of Sri Ramakrishna’s own sayings, ‘If the mind is like oil, it will float even upon an ocean of woman and gold’. At this, the Master retorted: That is true indeed; but if the oil floats on water for a considerable length of time, it becomes putrefied. In the same way, even if the mind were only to float over the ocean of ‘woman and gold’ the continuous contact of the latter for a long period would surely tend to vitiate the mind and make it give out an evil odor.”