“A company of twenty was approaching” the dwarves and Bilbo, laying their weapons aside, seeming as though coming in peace. “Among them were both Bard and the Elvenking, before whom an old man wrapped in cloak and hood”.  Like the time before, Bard came asking for a share of the heaps of gold and abundance of jewels in the mountain, but this time he came equipped with something of value that the dwarves might like. The old man “opened the casket and held aloft the [Arkenstone] … The light leapt from his hand, bright and white in the morning”. This predicament led to Thorin being “stricken dumb with amazement and confusion”. Immediately, Thorin accused Bard of thievery, his voice shaking with rage, but Bard declined the idea – in the midst the silent hobbit came out of the shadows announcing “I gave it to them!”. Thorin slowly turned to face the hobbit, steam protruding out his ears, “grasping [Bilbo] with both hands. “You miserable hobbit! You undersized—burglar!” he shouted at a loss for words, and he “shook poor Bilbo like a rabbit”.

Thorin shook Bilbo so hard the miserable hobbit was filled to the brim with fright hoping he wouldn’t die at the hands of one who was once an ally. Suddenly the old man who had revealed the Arkenstone “threw aside his hood and cloak” disclosing his true identity as the wizard Gandalf. He simply stated, “If you don’t like my Burglar, please don’t damage him. Put him down and listen first to what he has to say!” Thorin, deciding that he could listen to the bargain “[dropped] Bilbo on the top of the wall” while eyeing the audience skeptically as if they were working against him, and then said in a dark and thick tone, “What have you to say, you descendant of rats?” Then the hobbit spoke, “You may remember saying that I might choose my own fourteenth share? … dispose of my share as I wished, and let it go at that!”. Thorin, accepting the deal, agreed that he would “give one fourteenth share of the hoard in silver and gold, setting aside the gems” for the Arkenstone. The men of Laketown finally got their very well-deserved share of the mountain, because they gave a clear path and provisions for the dwarves, by killing Smaug the dragon, but at the cost of Bilbo’s relationship with Thorin, and his share of the treasure. Thorin is now clouded with rage, newly finding that his very own burglar had betrayed him by giving away the stone that had clouded his mind so far. At this point in the book, Thorin has many flaws, but the problem that could ruin him is the gold on the mountain – it fills him up with so much greed and arrogance that he forgets those who helped him most, and will not accept the help needed.