783. How Can a Traveler Transport His Valuables?

Shabbos 20:6

Let’s say that someone is on a journey when Shabbos arrives and he does not have a non-Jewish traveling companion who could watch his wallet. In such a case, if he has an animal with him, he can put his wallet on the animal while it is walking. When the animal wants to stop, he should remove the wallet so that the animal is not holding it when it stands in place. In this way, the animal neither uproots an object from its place nor causes it to come to rest in a new place (which is the labor of transporting). The owner may not direct the animal, not even by voice alone, so long as the wallet is on it. This way he will not be considered as having directed the animal on Shabbos. The Sages established that one may only place a wallet on an animal on Shabbos when he is not accompanied by a non-Jew.

Shabbos 20:7

If a traveler is accompanied by someone with congenital deafness, someone who is mentally incompetent and a minor (who are exempt from many mitzvos), he places the wallet on the donkey rather than giving to one of them because they are also people and members of the Jewish people. If he has no animal with him but he is accompanied by someone with congenital deafness and someone who is mentally incompetent, he should give his wallet to the person who is mentally incompetent. If he is accompanied by someone who is mentally incompetent and a minor, he should give his wallet to the mentally incompetent person. If he is accompanied by someone with congenital deafness and a minor, he may give the wallet to whichever person he prefers. If the traveler has neither an animal nor a traveling companion of this nature, he should carrying his wallet by walking less than four cubits at a time (about six feet). Even if he has taken possession a lost object, he may transport it in increments of less than four cubits at a time. If he has not yet taken possession of the lost object, he should wait there until Shabbos ends to acquire the object. If this is not possible, he may transport it in increments of smaller than four cubits.