Thieves and Merchants

The overall wealth of a society will have an important influence on this relationship. In a poor society, merchants will not be likely to be rich, and they will not be able to afford any regular thievery. They will not be able to bear such losses without going bankrupt. Here, merchants will fight tooth and nail to minimize the depredations of thieves. In richer lands, a little "stock loss" (among other things) can be tolerated rather better.

Alignment will somewhat modify this. In chaotic and/or evil societies which are rich, merchants may be very greedy, and may take many measures against thieves out of a love of money, not out of a need to survive. There may also be an important element of pride in a society which stresses individualism (chaotic) rather than one where merchants form groups, ally with each other, and try to regulate business practices (lawful). Over-proud merchants may resent monies or goods being stolen not primarily because of the loss of value—it may be negligible—but because of the loss of face. This can be an important factor in merchants putting pressure on authorities to suppress thieves, and in their hiring PCs for sums which exceed the value of their stolen goods!

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