Stolen Goods? Can't Find Much on the Subject.

[Bailey18]

In Oblivion, if you steal an item in front of a NPC who see's you, you either get caught or get a bounty.
Is it the same in Morrowind?

Also, is there a way to tell if an item belongs to a particular NPC? I would assume any items in an NPC's house would be theirs, but what about in Guilds?

[Samaelthedestroyer]

Yes, you will be arrested for stealing. unfortunately there is no way to tell if an item belongs to someone, so you have to be careful, and any items except for the guild supplies chest belong to someone and would be considered stealing.

[ZombieMonkeyNZ]

Yeah what Sameal said.
Also, if you are not part of the guild, then taking anything is considered stealing, but if you join the guild then it isn't.
And a note on the houses, it's considered stealing only if you are seen taking it, otherwise you're fine.

[Mechanical_loser]

Also you can sell any stolen goods you want to any merchant but just make sure these aren't HIS own goods because he will attack you

[Rohugh]

Firstly regarding guild houses. You can take stuff from the restocking guild chest if you are a member but be very careful about other containers or items lying around - they are often assigned to other NPCs, if you are seen taking the wrong item you will get attacked and kicked from the guild. It is not possible in the game to tell who owns what and remember that if you do steal something (say a silver longsword) then after that every item of that type you have in your inventory will be marked as stolen no matter where you get it. So that silver longsword that you stole at level one, then sold, will also be marked if you buy one at level 20 - and be confiscated if you ever get arrested.

If you are using pc you can toggle "TFH" in the console, when you hover your pointer over an item it will tell you the ownership (if any). So, being a thief is not easy in this game and can lead to consequences later.

[urthdigger]

Another thing to note is that if you steal any owned object, every object you ever pick up will then be marked as owned by that NPC when it's in your inventory. This means if you steal from a shop owner, you can NEVER sell that item to them ever again. It also means that if you steal things often, some items may wind up with quite the large owner list when using TFH in your inventory.

Also, on guilds, I've noted that a number of items have an owner of a certain guild rank. You can't take these if you're below that rank, but once you're at or above it, you can appropriate it as you please. This is mostly for the aforementioned guild chests and other things unlocked at the first rank, but pretty sure I've found a number of things, like spare weapons lying around, that are owned by a higher rank.

[OblivionDuruza]

Most of everything has been covered I guess, but there are some helpful articles you might want to check out on the UESP.

Primarily, the page on crime.

As has been mentioned in various pieces by various others in this thread, the game will always track owned items, but there is no way for you to know what is owned and what is not unless you utilise the console ("TFH" or "ToggleFullHelp").

Unlike Oblivion, merchants are not as psychic, and will buy stolen goods, however, they can always tell if something was once theirs and will subsequently kick up a fuss if you try to sell them something you have stolen from them.

It is interesting to note that this rule is applies to all items of the type that you stole, even if you get rid of the stolen ones and acquire others legally. This means that stealing one steal arrow could give all 100 of your arrows this owned tag.

Due to this combination of elements, it is highly unlikely that any player will ever avoid carrying around stolen items, so the best course of action is to avoid being arrested because if you pay off your Bounty to a guard or go to jail, all items that belong to someone else, or are Contraband (i.e. Skooma and Moon Sugar), are removed from your inventory.

However, if you are arrested, you may reclaim your items by breaking into the evidence chest in the Imperial Legion Fort that the guard who caught you was stationed at.

[urthdigger]

Something I'm wondering... if you get arrested, does that clear items having that tag in your inventory? Like, let's say I either stash my stuff someplace safe before I get arrested, or reclaim them after. Would tfh still show a long list of everyone I stole from?

[OblivionDuruza]

If you stash it, it is still owned by the person you acquired it from.

To reclaim it, you're stealing it back , so I would say that it doesn't remove the tag.

I haven't been in that scenario and used tfh so I can't be sure though, but I'm just working off the game logic.

[urthdigger]

Well, I do know that once you've picked something up, the item itself is no longer flagged as owned: If you drop it and use TFH to examine it outside your inventory, it will be unowned. So, I'm guessing that the "This item was stolen" bit is stored on the player, saying "This player stole a diamond from Nelcarya", and I'm basically hoping that when you're arrested, it basically says you gave back all the stuff... and clears the flags. I'm kinda OCD and it always bugs me with the items that are marked as stolen when they really shouldn't be.

[Rohugh]

Something I'm wondering... if you get arrested, does that clear items having that tag in your inventory? Like, let's say I either stash my stuff someplace safe before I get arrested, or reclaim them after.

No it doesn't. Once an item is tagged as stolen, all items with the same id are also tagged - forever.

[Smokey]

After extensive testing, my experiences with item ownership are as follows:

If an owned item is in the game world and you pick it up it will always be considered stolen.

If an item is in an owned container and you pick it up:
If the owner is alive, it will be marked stolen.
If the owner is dead, it will not be marked stolen. There are exceptions though.

Arrests and item ownership
As an example, when you mouse over an item in the game world with ToggleFullHelp/tfh, such as a glass bottle in Seyda Neen's Census & Excise office, it is owned by "a shady smuggler". Pick it up and drop it. The guard rushes over to arrest you. You pay the fine.
Mouse over the same glass bottle again, it no longer has "a shady smuggler" under it. However, that glass bottle type has already been marked stolen. Any glass bottles of that type will be confiscated when you are arrested.
My point is taking an item will clear the ownership of the item, but paying fines while the item is on the floor will not clear the stolen tag from you.

At the start of the game when in the office you CAN do this trick though (pick and drop), and you won't get any stolen item tags. Usually for that nice Limeware Platter.

Lastly, if your rank in the Imperial Legion is Knight Protector or above, you can clear stolen tags from your character by holding the items with stolen tags and getting arrested, then reclaiming your items from the nearest Evidence Chest, as all Evidence Chests are owned by "Imperial Legion Rank Knight Protector". Doesn't work for valueless items like Keys however.