Alright, dl'ed it and have played it for about a day or so....
I managed to get to level six, and I found three <item's> along the way, one of which was cursed with the "It disturbs your growth ####"
Naturally, the wiki has told me that these items are valued for keeping your level down but it caused teleportation every now and again (migitated with a necklace of silence I found) and caused a shitton of 'malicious hands' to take the ten thousand coins I had accumulated, and it basically turned down from there.
Lost my mithril banded mail [10,11] I traded for a treasure map, my first <item> I had melted in a fire and my teammate I had hired left my service (I couldn't rehire him, as i didn't have enough money).
long story short, how would one go around building up enough money for a shop or museum? I seem to die/lose my money before I can. I have been storing spare equipment, scrolls, books and mic objects in the thieves den, but I would have had to identify half of it, and I stored most of it because I sensed its quality was less than great, or cursed.
Puppy cave can still be dangerous is you are still level 1. And cargo attracts bandits which you should avoid unless you have a good source of teleportation. But even then things can go badly.
My usual method of money gaining is to enter the wild along the roads and fight the weak stuff there, collecting api nuts/leaves (these will help for dungeon diving int he long run,I like to stock up on them), bones/hearts/skins of monsters, and tight ropes. Identify ONE bone/heart/skin and you will get the value of all bones/hearts/skins. Same with the tight ropes. They are common and sell for a decent amount of money. That is always my starting income.
After that, grind the puppy dungeon. Experience and loot are there for the taking.
Also, don't go for a shop. Museums are much more reliable.
A way to make tons of money? Wish for a pair of seven league boots, look for "take item/person to Noyel" quests, complete easily, collect your 10k gold.
Ah yes, the "rich man throws around money" event should counter the malicious hands event int he early games, but later when you have tons of money you want either a kitty bank or a protection from thieves item.