This is actually a legitimate concern that I encountered the other night.

It would be nice if pickpocketing counted

In Oblivion everybody complained about guards screaming CRIMINAL SCUM when you stole an apple, they fixed it to Skyrim so people who like you don't care if you take some of their stuff and now you complain about that...

To be fair, they would come and yell at you if you stole that apple in the dead of night 500m away and were witnessed by a vampire.

Not really the same thing. We're not talking about the barrels laying around everywhere you can get free stuff, we're talking about an ENTIRE HOUSE you can loot free of consequences.

It's fine and dandy if you develop a sort of relationship with the NPC in question, but if it's like how it is now with you meeting them and they're like "TAKE MAH EVERYTHING!!!" only because you asked them about the happenings in town, it's just a wee bit ridiculous, don't you think?

Takes any shred of believability out of the game world, lessens the ultra coveted immersion factor that most players of Bethesda games rave about (I really don't personally), and makes it even easier for you to steal stuff almost to the point of where it could be considered game breaking.

Honestly, if it was the Oblivion implementation vs. the current implementation we have, I'd take the former. I'd say it's a bit more realistic (because even if you are the slayer of 27,237 dragons, I'm going to have an issue with you jacking my stuff, especially if your rep is bad), and it adds a bit of challenge to stealing items when compared to what we have.

Oblivion can keep it's grabbing mechanic though. I'd like not to be fined 40 gold just because I touched a head of lettuce.

Well, i didn't know that you can take everything in some guys house, i have always been able just to take some lower cost items but never above 50 septims.

Ah, but again this game takes it to the other extreme -- you can hold an item not owned by you for any period of time without any consequences, so you can just grab it and move it to a location where you can safely steal it -- even easier than using buckets!

If we let bethesda get away with stuff like this without even saying anything they'll get worse. Eventually there'll be no quests cause we can use our imagination instead.

Gross exaggeration yes, but Bethesda have implemented more than a few mod ideas into this game. So a mod to fix this would be a good idea.

If I keep making friends with everyone I won't be much of a thief. You can't steal what people give to you. That's my main annoyance. I want the various gold scattered throughout their houses, but I don't want them to just let me take it. I've been mainly role playing a thief. It's like if you were role playing Dovahkiin and suddenly Alduin just bent over and said, "Here, take my head off. You're my best fiend!!! "

All the challenge is removed.

I never did find that game setting.