Its getting rough when we are arguing over the actions of a person that
never existed. I'm still surprised over that other message about the yanks
taking over a german sub and getting the emigma machine. I know the yanks
were the allies in WWII. They did attack german subs, the emigma machine was
taked by the allies. The allies did enter sinking subs to get certain
machinery (the ones who didn't get out in time got medals if I remember
correctly), so the movie had to be true. All the evidence I mention fits the
movie.
RD: The mithril armour was made by the Dwarves in Erebor (the Kingdom under
the Mountain).
Alas erebor didn't make any mithril that I remember. That come from moria
(which is one of the reasons why the dwarves tried to recolonise the place).
Since each dwarven centre was ruled by different dwarven clans, its
'unlikely' the dwarves in moria would give away so much mithril, no matter
how good looking the beard for the dwarven queen in erebor was (hint, when
losing an argument - confuse them. You can get get a head start while your
opponent is trying to work out what is going on).
It was seized by Smaug along with the rest of the Dwarven
hoard.
It was invested for safe keepings. Most of the dwarves hoards were long
gone(the typical dwarf would waste all his money on beer and platform
shoes). Having someone safeguard such a large amount of money was only
commen sense.
With the death of Smaug, Thorin Oakenshield reclaimed his kingdom
and his hoard, to which the mithril armour belonged.
possession is nine tenths of the law after all. Actually if I remember my
books better I would now refer to the chain that the dwarves made to keep
the simillarion. That also had a lot of people saying 'its all mine'. And
then washing off the blood of the previous owner who said 'its all mine'
Sometimes winning a fight doesn't mean you now have ownership of what the
loser had. Not that it doesn't stop people fighting over things.
Thorin gave the
mithril armour to Bilbo as the first instalment of payment for his
services.
I was agreeing with everything you said up to this stage. I didn't remember
it was a first instalment, I thought it was 'thanks very much for all your
work. You were right, and I was wrong. I was an awful prat before, but i'm
much better now that i'm dying'. Of course going forward in time and seeing
how much the orcs fought over it, i'm not surprised Thorin didn't want the
dwarves to kept it. An item of that much value would have the entire family
fighting very hard over the will to see who gets to keep it (and when you
are fighting using large two handed axes, someone is bound to get hurt).
Bilbo later LENT the mithril armour to the Mathom-house (a museum of
unwanted gifts) so he was quite entitled to reclaim it when he needed it.
reclaiming. How I hate that word. I wanted to stop paying taxes (don't we
all), but the goverment sent a letter back saying 'we make the money in the
first place, so we are only reclaiming it'. Reclaiming is also a dangerous
word in OZ (seems some australia are worried about other australia who want
to reclaim things).
Neither the community nor any other hobbit had any use for it anyway.
Bet it was missed when Saruman got involved, and the hobbits had to defend
themselves. And yes to a previous comment, most hobbits would have preferred
a smoke, some fireworks, and something for nothing.
Yes,
it WAS all perfectly legitimate and above board!
That line gets heard at the start of every fraud case in the land. Most of
time it fails - unless of course you are in Oz and very famous, then the
case then thrown out on a technical mistake that some policeman made and you
can then claim you are innocent of any fraud, since you were not found
guilty 
You can't compare that with Gollum who murdered Deagol for a gold ring.
Gollum!
I claim the cronje defense - my sympathies to all people like me who had
defended his actions. I only hope he took money from stupid bookies who
wanted pitch reports, and not took money to throw games. If I wanted a pitch
report, I would gone to the ground keeper (but thats only me).
Now he MIGHT have made a good agent, starting his career with a
murder and a theft, then hiding in the depths of Goblin-gate, where he
murdered and ate small goblins as a change from fish.
he also munched on orcs if I remember. Meat is good for you (unless you
listen to those skinny, pale-looking, grass eating people). Not very good
for the animals the meat gets taken from, but such is life.
Gollum also possessed
natural stealth, even without the Ring!
Steath I once got the agent 40 and stealth SNA in a fourth age game. What
a waste of money that was (the two ability together, not the game). I've
only found steath very useful (notice the word 'very') in 930s.
Since no one at my work even knows who tolkien is (the closer was "wasn't he
that racist writer who wrote a book about hobbits"), its amazing listening
to people who know more than me (but knowing what I know, that isn't that
hard).
thanks
m
p.s add a 
to just about every thing I wrote. But I would like to be told
about the first instalment thing. I've completely forgetting about that. And
I don't remember it being mentioned later on. The closest that the dwarves
got to paying off their debt to bilbo, was them warning bilbo about the
black riders wanting info on him (and that was more of a friend-to-friend
thing - they also wanted info on the black riders themselves if I remember).