# Merchants won’t carry anything
**URL:** https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/merchants-won-t-carry-anything/20069
**Category:** The Bunker
**Created:** [May 14, 2019, 3:03pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/merchants-won-t-carry-anything/20069 "2019-05-14T15:03:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Strangelove](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Strangelove)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2019, 3:03pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/merchants-won-t-carry-anything/20069/1 "2019-05-14T15:03:28Z")
I’ve tried to trade with the merchant at the refugee centre, I had a spare acetylene torch but trying to sell it I got a message that he can’t carry all that. Is there a way to fix that?
---
### Author:  [@mlangsdorf](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/mlangsdorf)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2019, 5:22pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/merchants-won-t-carry-anything/20069/2 "2019-05-14T17:22:13Z")
Not currently. The problem is that NPCs only trade what they can carry. It wouldn’t be too hard to fix that in the C++ code, and if you know how to program I can point you to the relevant sections, but no one has fixed it yet.
---
### Author:  [@nhkun](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/nhkun)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2019, 4:49am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/merchants-won-t-carry-anything/20069/3 "2019-05-15T04:49:32Z")
I can try to do it. You can point us both.
---
### Author:  [@mlangsdorf](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/mlangsdorf)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2019, 12:36pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/merchants-won-t-carry-anything/20069/4 "2019-05-15T12:36:09Z")
The NPC trading code is in src/npctrade.cpp.
It needs a lot of code clean-up but it mostly works so polishing it has been low priority for me.
The weight and volume of stuff that the NPC can trade is set on lines 191-192
```auto
units::volume volume_left = p.volume_capacity() - p.volume_carried();
units::mass weight_left = p.weight_capacity() - p.weight_carried();
```
your trading inventory is set in `init_buying()` on lines 79-115, and the NPC’s trading inventory is set in `init_selling()` on lines 48-67.
and the code to transfer inventory is `inventory_exchange()` at the top of the file.
if you compare `init_buying()` to `init_selling()`, you’ll notice that you add items from the ground an adjacent vehicle to your inventory, but the NPC does not. 90% of the time, that’s appropriate, but shopkeepers should be allowed to sell inventory from the ground.
You can check if an `npc &guy` is a shopkeeper with `guy.mission == NPC_MISSION_SHOPKEEP`.
So what needs to happen is `init_selling()`, there needs to be check for `p.mission == NPC_MISSION_SHOPKEEP`, and if it is true, the NPC adds inventory from the ground. Lines 191-192 need a similar check that lets the shopkeeper carry an unlimited amount of inventory, something like:
```auto
if( p.mission == NPC_MISSION_SHOPKEEP() ) {
volume_left += 8000_liters;
mass_left += 8000_kilograms;
}
```
and shopkeepers should use `p.i_add_or_drop( it, true );` in `inventory_exchange()` except you’ll need to rewrite `inventory_exchange()` and that entire logic quite a bit; probably break it into two functions: one that removes items from inventory and one that adds them; both should use the inventory accessors from character.h instead of manipulating the inventories directly.
Thanks for volunteering to do this!