Upon finishing the first quest for Brynjolf in Riften involving lockpicking a box to plant the ring on an NPC (can't remember the name), he tells me to talk to him in the Flagon Dragon. He doesn't give me the quest he should have, though, called "Taking Care of Business". I was unaware of it at the time, so I cleared out The Ratway and made my way to the Flagon Dragon anyway. Brynjolf wasn't there, so I figured I had to wait until night time. I did. He showed up, but when I tried talking to him, he just replied, "Hmm?"

I reloaded to an earlier save point to try the quest again. I did it perfectly, he still didn't give me the quest. My friend told me that getting an Unusual Gem and showing it to Maul would prompt me to talk to Brynjolf and get the quest also. I got an Unusual Gem, talked to Maul, he told me to talk to Brynjolf, but I only got the same response from him. "Hmm?" After this failed as well, I cleared my system cache. No dice. I tried installing it to my hard drive (I play on X360), nothing. This is really bumming me out because I was so excited to start the Thieve's Guild quest chain.

Is there anything I could be doing wrong that won't allow me to get the quest, or any alternative to joining the Thieve's Guild?

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one more bump for good measure

i don't mean to jack your thread, but i am also having trouble with this quest. not in the same way you are though. i have received the "taking care of business" quest but bersi, one of the three people im trying to find and collect from, is nowhere to be found. i've checked the pawned prawn and he's not even in there. like the OP, this is very frustrating because without being able to complete this initiation quest, i can't join the thieves guild at all. i'm either missing something, or this quest is somewhat buggy.

I don't want to continue leveling anything up as of now either, because if I find out how to do it and it involves me using an earlier save slot I don't want to lose all that progress... Any information would be helpful.

bump for answers.