One note: i believe that the vicious rend ability, would require either a bonus action or an incidental to activate, since it activates on the drop bear's turn. A reaction is used when not on your turn.
And lets not forget, the original post was about a village of about 70 people. Even if the 1200gp was distributed evenly to every townfolk, that would result in about 17 GP per villager. No one is going to kill over that.
A few points of contention. First, was the entire village made aware of the generous donation, or was the money given discreetly to the Mayor/Elder? Second, what is the personality/alignment/whatever of the Mayor/Elder? Is He/She working for the good of the town? Assuming it is indeed a small...