I would like to make one suggestion that may or may not be possible. As there are a load of new players, I suggest that we make a small number of locked chests in the wild for free, after a player has been around a short length of time. Would work like this: Give a new player one free lockable chest after a week of playing, and 4 more locked chests 'free' after one month of playing. (more than the 5 free, then you must pay the 1000 rupees per locked chest) In all honesty, for us savers or players that have been around a load, the ruppes are easy for us to spend cause we got them, but for someone newer trying to live in the wild, it is much tougher to try and save up a thousand rupees to be able to protect all their belongings. Just a thought. The only downside, is that players would indeed be more 'apt' to locking chests in the wild to protect their belongings, so leaving abandoned locked chests may be a slight issue, however if they stick around past a week, and play the month, I would think that is a much better 'thing'... Anyhow, possibly some free lockable chests after a predetermined amount of time spent here on the Empire encourage people to play more and would make people feel more comfortable and not having to spend so much rupees on protecting their labors. Open to additional suggestions, modifications, criticism, etc...! If you have an idea, don't be shy!
