I rented Malcolm's house. Not really paying attention to
game days (or really knowing how to keep track of them) I went
back to Trevor once or twice, wondering if he would ask for
more rent. He didn't. I had stashed lots of loot in both
the bedroom cupboard and chest. One day, I came home and found
a strange woman in my living room. The next time I returned,
my chest had disappeared. A few days later, after buying the
house from Trevor, the chest reappeared.

Does one thing have anything to do with the other? Is there
no point to buying a home other than for the exp? Can you lock
the door once you've paid for the house? Who was that woman?
Where was my stuff? Did the landlord hold it as ransom for unpaid
rent? Does he really expect you to return periodically and *pay*
rent if you haven't purchased it?

Inquiring minds want to know.

If you left the door open, that woman may have just wandered in. If you use Lockpick on an unlocked chest it will be locked. I never tried this with a door, but even if it doesn't work, closing it should mostly keep people from entering.
You only get experience for buying the house. IMO there are better locations you can just take over.

Is it safe to leave your loot in any chest or cupboard, or only in a house that has a bed in which you can sleep?

How do you know if you can take over a house?

Pretty much the only unsafe places to leave something are Malcolm's house (before buying it, and especially before turning him in) and the room in the Ducal inn (though you can re-rent the room to get your stuff back if your time runs out).

It is convenient to leave your stuff near a house with a bed, but it is just as easy to make a hay bed beside a teleporter and leave your stuff there. You can take over any building, but if you pick one that is occupied, you will have NPCs wandering around getting in your way. Get the portable bed from the house north of the cursed Abbey (lots of room, handy teleporter pad) and you can setup wherever you want.

Well that figures, that I chose the one place to get robbed.
I thought just leaving stuff strewn about on the ground would
result in having it picked up by those grubby crumb eaters or
that they'd simply dissolve.

How do you know when your time's up at the inn? How long's a
game day? Or a game month?

i have left most of my stuff all over the land and it never gets stolen, i've still got stuff at georges's house and at various tele stations around rivellon once i do get my house having all items collected beside teleporters will make it easy to "furnish my house" Don't forget to close your door and put a big boulder in front of the door as a deterrant! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

I never rented a room, so I am not sure if there is any indication of when your time is up. There are days and times listed in the conversation log; I don't know any other way to keep track of game-time (but then I never paid much attention to that anyway).

They're not so subtle about when your time's up down in the Ducal Inn cellar.
Both the male and female, (had to visit them both, what with EEOC and all) they both just cruise afterward. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif" alt="" />

I simply assumed that the day ends with sunset...and begins with sunrise...although it's hard to remember to count(and probably pointless).

And since you can force sunrise/sunset by sleeping, I guess that makes it pointless too. *shrug*