Ever get tired of that big red bullseye painted on the back of your caravan, making you an obvious target to thieves three screens away? Ever wish there was something you could do to protect your prescious coins? Well now there is. Here are some of the dozens of ways to protect your coins:

1. Carry plenty of copper coins. This is the most important step. Just be careful not to carry too many that you'll fall down when you pick stuff up. Personally, I carry 3000 when I trade. I would consider this the minimum, or else the chances of someone getting lucky and grabbing big coins gets too high. If you are a more paranoid and/or wealth-driven Trader than I happen to be, you should not hesitate to carry more.
2. Pay the clerk twice. When you ASK MINISTER FOR CONTRACT, type WEALTH, see how many gold coins you have, and then type PAY [all] GOLD. Then GIVE CONTRACT TO CLERK, to get the goods loaded on your caravan. Next, type WEALTH again, this time see how many silvers you have, and type PAY [all] SILVER. Now go finish the contract. The point of paying the clerk twice instead of simply typing PAY CLERK is that it will give you auto-change, turning extra silvers into golds and extra golds into platinums. This keeps golds and silvers from piling up, which would give thieves a good chance at grabbing them past all those coppers you're carrying. The most gold or silver you'll ever have at once is 10 of each, usually less.
3. Get a moneybelt. The only problem with paying the clerk twice is that you exchange all your excess golds for plats. The chance of one getting stolen is extremely small, but does exist. If you shell out the money for a moneybelt, that chance goes down to zero. You can put all your golds and silvers in it too. Moneybelts are very expensive, they usually run about 300 plat, but they are a very good investment. Everyone and their brother wants a moneybelt, so the price isn't going to go down. So if you see one selling for less than 300 plat, you can be fairly sure that if you buy it you'll be able to get your money back when you eventually decide to sell it. If you can't afford the moneybelt just yet, try #4:
4. Stop at the bank. Whenever you're delivering a contract to Riverhaven, the Crossing, or Shard, just run to the bank real quick and get rid of those excess plats.
5. Carrying gems to protect coins...Many people think that this is a good idea, since highly skilled thieves automatically grab gems before they grab coins. But actually, this is usually NOT a good way to protect your coins. In my tests, the average number of coins grabbed by a 30th degree expert at stealing was only 17. So unless you have extremely cheap gems, such as plain cystallized granites, or better yet, gems that are cursed, you are just throwing your money away. Carry coppers, not gems.
6. Hide. Whenever you're on a barge or ferry, hide. Or better yet, on the barge you can go into the casino where thieves cannot steal. Whenever you're trading in the Crossing area and letting your caravan lead, if you're not practicing skills, then hide. In Zoluren, you can be immune to theft while traveling to 5 of the 7 outposts.
7. Watch. If there's a thief "patrolling" a specific area, like Steel Claw Clan or Therenborough, and stealing from you without hiding, type WATCH [thief]. Watching a thief gives a huge bonus to catching them, if they stay unhidden. For some reason though, as soon as they hide that bonus disappears, regardless of whether you saw them hide or not.
8. Be responsive. Many traders will tell you the exact opposite, they'll say that nothing good can ever come of stopping to talk to a thief you happen to catch. Maybe they're right. But many people in DragonRealms have a general dislike of traders and will automatically assume that we are AFK while trading. Thieves are no different. And most thieves will go out of their way to rob you less often when they know that you are not AFK (especially when they realize all you have is coppers). I usually go for a short comment like "More coppers where those came from", then a shrug, then continue trading. They get the idea.
9. Accuse. If you happen to catch a thief stealing from you within the town walls of the Crossing, RiverHaven, Therenborough, or Shard, you have the option to accuse them to the guards. You have to go to the guardhouse and type ACCUSE [full name of thief]. Many people think that accusing is useless, since thieves rarely get arrested right away. But when guilded Thieves are successfully accused they get a stiff penalty to many of their skills, including stealing. If they know which Trader it was who accused them, it's very doubtful they'll continue to steal from that Trader in town.
10. Disband. Typing DISBAND will make anyone joined to you and/or stalking you stop being joined or stalking. And the only way to steal from someone outside of town is to stalk them. Be careful to not overuse the disband command, it can border on being OOC and being an abuse of game mechanics. It's best to only use when you have typed WEALTH and noticed coins missing, or if you're in a highly thief-populated room like the gem shop or tannery. You can also steer clear of the whole disbanding thing by just hiding and then sneaking away, it accomplishes the same thing. NOTE: DISBAND has been changed so that you can only disband a stalker that you saw stalking you.
11. Perception and Stealing. When a thief steals from you, having high stealing skill is what will help you CATCH the thief (so that he gets no coins), and having high perception skill is what will help you SEE the thief (but he will still get coins). So it is in your best interest to learn as much perception as you can, as well as stealing if you feel it is not Out-Of-Character for your character. Don't worry if you don't want to roleplay a character who steals, you can still protect your coins just fine using steps 1-10.