I went into their manor to see what it was like, see if there was anything to steal. There was like 1 person there so it wouldn't have been hard, olnly there's nothing good. Didn't see any jewelery or anything. The house looks as dingy and dirty as any other in Riften, and there's hardly anything in it, very scarcely furnished. Even the beds are just hay on a simple frame with furs for blankets, if I recall. Shouldn't they be able to afford proper bedding? They're not peasants.

They're old money.. Old money doesn't buy things. I really think it's so you don't get 100k in coin by level 12 by robbing them. Same with the jarls. Visit the jail if you wanna see a ballin cell though.

They ought to make stealing a bit harder. NPCs always let you wander their house freely without keeping an eye on you. But the Black Briars should at least give the appearance of afluence.

Every house ever is devoid of real valuables. The only places that are truly rich look fancy, complete with tapestries and furnishing, as well as a complete meal for a feast. That's what you should really look at.

And besides, Riften hasn't fared well this past era...

If you regularly interacted with the Thieve's Guild, would you leave your valuables lying around?

It's funny how, in retrospect, Morrowind seems like the richest province ...

If I basically had them in a stranglehold, I wouldn't be too worried. I certainly wouldn't be worried about them stealing my bed or furniture. And being rich I would hire servants to watch my house to protect it from theives.

Maybe she doesn't have them in quite as much a stranglehold as she thought, and that's why all her valuables are missing.

If that happened to her, she'd probably have the Brotherhood knock a few of them off, or her personal mercenaries at least. And once again would not apply to things like construction and furniture.

I think you're taking my posts a bit too seriously, my good man.

I agree with OP. Even if the items were static and you couldn't interact with them/steal them, there should be some indication of wealth.

As for the TG theory, it'd be stupid for the TG to steal anything from the Black-Briars, since the Black-Briar know who the thieves are.

I agree that it is unbelievable that so many supposed to be rich characters are in fact poor even Silda the Unseen in Windhelm is richer than a Jarl (after training pickpocketing only once)...
I miss the days of old *looking at Ishar here* and don't you dare to say it was easy to get into the treasury and out ALIVE! Dudes I was SO happy when I accomplished THAT...

That-guy-again is right. Old money rarely has money. (For an example of what I mean, look to pretty much all European nobility. They're nobles in title only.) Even if they wanted to, the Black Briars probably can't afford to appear affluent. Also, they live in the most scoundrelly town in the entirety of Skyrim. It's got to be difficult to maintain appearances when your appearances are constantly stolen.

The family's wealth lies in land ownership. They own quite a few buildings outside of town.

It's not just "old money". They own, from what I have seen, the only 2 meaderies in the whole damn province, and mead is something people in Skyrim love. They would have a large and consistent income.

I think they're heavily based on The Patrician, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havelock_Vetinari, from Discworld. He was, among other things, noted for having very spartan living quarters and eating habits, and also probably never slept anyways.

While partially on topic, most of the supposed 'rich' families have nothing worthy of theft. Be it the Black-Briars, the Battle-Borns, the Silver-Bloods, or anything in the Blue Palace.

Granted, there are a few trinkets you can find in various places to sell to Delvin, but overall there doesn't seem to be anything worth stealing, anywhere.

What do they spend it on, though? They have a housemage, which probably is really expensive- especially with the kind of mage they have. They have guards, a lot of them, which patrol the whole of Riften. Those are the only two things I can think of, really, but when you think of how expensive they are, and that the manour (?) is likely Spot Numero Uno for the then it makes sense. Or not?
Also, I'm sure plenty of Nords can make their own mead. It's not that difficult to do ...

Addendum: As for having nothing to steal ... There's no point in placing valuable loot if there's no challenge in it for the player, is there? May as well throw all that loot in the middle of a road somewhere and have the player acquire it that way.

I reccomend robbing the vendors in Solitude, they have pretty neat things..

If you just created a char.. One stair below in Jorravaskr (?) they have elven bow etc in a locked display case Its a nice starting bow

What are you on about? I get followed every time I walk into a house or a different level in an Inn or bar. I've even had people stop and say, "Your not supposed to be in here. GET OUT!!"

I'm not sure if its because I play a thief and my character class is of a thief but I get shooed away a lot. When I'm running about stealing things from houses I have to be real sneaky like.