Someone at my hotel just had $900 stolen from her room. And most likely it was a French tourist that did it.

I'm less afraid of having stuff stolen from locale people than I am from other tourists. A local might see something you have, that they don't & if you're not looking, take it. A hotel maid might take something because it's right there, you won't discover its gone because you have all this other stuff you've just left around the room. But if the hotel owner finds out, he knows he makes money from tourists & so he fires her. In Zimbabwe, the maid was watched by a security guard. Clever, but it didn't make me feel that much better.

But there are tons of stories, especially on this, the beginner backpacking trail, of young 1st time travelers drinking their money away & then getting stuck... & to get unstuck they steal from other young travelers who's room they're invited into or who ignorantly don't lock their stuff. And if more than one person's stuck, they hold someone up using a swiss-army knive or just beat up the other traveler. Travelers know each others' secrets...they know about money belts & neck pouches...& use it to their advantage.

I always keep money in mulitple locations & have one location with enough money for the day so no one has to know where these other locations are. Which also keeps forced bribe amounts low too.