Don't worry about paying your provincial debt your first few weeks in the Realms. Let it ride until you have some coin ahead, and have enough to stay debt free in the Guild. Then pay your taxes as you have extra coin to do so. You will need to stay debt free with the Province later in your career, when you might want to barter goods with people. You can't barter if you owe a debt in the province where you are working.

As you are selling branches, sticks, herbs or pelts, you are getting coin. Be sure to frequently visit the bank and deposit your coins. (DIR BANK) If you are going to buy something at a shop, go to the shop, ask the merchant about the item to find out approximately how much you'll need, then go to the bank and bring back only as much as you will need. Don't walk around carrying large quantities of coin if you can possibly avoid it. It's well known that traders do have times where they may be carrying coin, and young traders especially can be frequent sources of ready coin for those who have the skill to remove it from their pockets.

Also be aware that if you should die, whatever coin you have on your person will fall from your pockets and be lost forever.

Gems can be stolen from an open container on your person. If you have gems on you at all, be sure to put them in a container inside another container. It doesn't matter then if both containers are open. Or, be careful to close the container you keep your gems in. But we all have lapses, so the safest thing is to put your gems in a gem pouch then put your gem pouch in your pack.

Other items you own cannot be stolen off your person. If something other than coin or a gem goes missing, it's more likely that you made a mistake when putting it away and put it somewhere you didn't mean to (such as into a backpack on the ground instead of your own).

Do not be quick to accuse people around you of theft. Usually if someone has successfully stolen from you, you are not going to have the skill to see them. The people you can see probably did not take what you've lost.

If you do happen to catch someone stealing coin from your pocket there are things you can do. Make sure you actually see them taking the coin though. If you just caught them “in time” and didn't see them taking coin, you don't have a valid complaint – only a suspicion that the coin you lost may have been taken by that person.

First, you do have the right to attack the thief – IF you can still find them, IF you are stronger than they are, IF you are willing to accept that you may die instead. Not usually the best option for a young trader. This is one of two ways you have to possibly get your coin back.

Second, and more usual choice for us, is to accuse the person to the guards. If you catch a thief in your pockets in the city (that is, within town or just outside the walls), you can run quickly to the Guard House and ACCUSE the person by name. Be sure you get the name right or the guards will not know what you're talking about. Don't wait long, either, because you have only a short time to place your complaint. Once you accuse the person, go on about your business and forget it. What the city does is put the person's name up on the wanted board. Then if a guard sees the thief, they arrest him and put him in jail, with a fine or stock time thereafter. You don't get your coin back, but you know that you've done your civic duty.

Always know the location of the Guard House in every town you visit, so that you can get there quickly if you need to.

Third, if you happen to catch someone in your pocket while you are running contracts on the routes outside the cities, you can accuse at the nearest outpost. Leave your animal or caravan where it is and run, do not walk, to the closest outpost to where the theft occurred. When you arrive at the guild clerk, ACCUSE the person by name, just as you would to a town guard. Again there is a limited time period you can do this, and you need to get the name right. Once you make your report, the guild clerk will tell you if the accusation will be acted on. Then you go about your business and forget it. What the guild does is send out a team of thugs to find the thief. The thugs beat the thief nearly to death, and take his coin. You don't get it back, but it's nice to know our guild takes care of us this way.

Fourth, most fun but sometimes least effective, is to role play with the thief. Complain about your starving wife and children. Tell them that was the funeral money for your dying aunt. Whatever. Sometimes a thief fairly caught will return the coin taken rather than get accused (which impacts them negatively with their guild) or attacked.

Finally, as soon as you realize you've been stolen from at all, if you didn't catch the thief, HIDE and stalk as quickly as you can manage to the nearest bank and deposit your remaining coin. Often a thief will target a given trader and keep stealing from him or her as long as he can, until those pockets are empty. They assume we are blind, or that we don't care.

Keep a little extra money in the various banks along your contract route for emergencies. Nothing quite like going to Leth Deriel, south of the river, and having all your coin stolen so you have no ferry fare to get home. The Depository in Leth is just a few steps from the guild outpost, and you can keep a few kronars there as a stash for just such emergencies. There's also a bank in Dirge, a step north from the guild outpost in that town, where you can also deposit some backup coin. Likewise in Therengia, there are banks in Riverhaven, Therenborough, and Muspar'I where you can deposit your earnings as you go.

If you don't carry more money than you must at any given time, you can at least minimize the impact of theft on your profits. Learn where to expect thieves, and take extra precautions at those times when you are most at risk. Learn ways to avoid making yourself a target. Keep in mind some people take delight in causing pain to others, and are best dealt with by avoidance. Try not to let the occasional losses ruin your enjoyment.