If you were the King under the Mountain...?

[Gwaihir]

If you were Thorin as the King under the Mountain, what would you have done? I would have shared the gold with the men and the wood elves, since there was so much of it! Anyway, I think that it was the fault of Thorin's company that Esgaroth was destroyed, and so they should pay them. It would be impossible to live there without the help of the people around the mountain.

[Bawax]

i'd have given a reasonable share to Lake Town and to Dale but i wouldn't have given a penny to the elves purely for imprisioning the dwarves for no good reason. :)

[Mirkgirl]

What we shouldn't forget here is that the dwarf is a dwarf... if you were a dwarf you'd be thinking as a dwarf... and for a dwarf the gold is his own and the rest have no right...

Hypothetically I'm not that sure that the dwarves have to pay for the town, as it was a matter of time Smaug to decide that the town is not a good view... or Sauron to decide that the dragon should come in the act. And it was because of the dwarves&co that Bard knew for the weak spot. However the town helped the company and they should repay for this. About the elves they trully don't deserve anything.

However sense says that a war is something which is not wise and which is going to happen if they don't give to one side, or if they don't give any... there is a possibility to give more to the men and scare the elves with the united forces of men and dwarves, but that's risky... other possibility is to make men and elves fight for the gold, but that's hard to accomplish (bad on the side of men and elves, but a pretty good end for the dwarves themselves)... probably they should give both the men and elves gold, probably almost evenly, even if not deserved... that way at least there will be no war.

But as I said those are dwarves... you cannot be a dwarf and use logic where gold is.