well you could

1. not exploit the fact that you can carry stuff around without being scolded for it

seriously if the fact that you can move stuff around without getting yelled at and take it to some corner and steal it easily bothers you, why would you do it? thats like saying i dont like using magic but here let me only use fireballs in combat.

as for the stuff being white, if you want to really feel like you are stealing from someone why would you be stealing the low value items in the first place instead of the high value red items? if that is truly what is happening in your game.

ill get back to you after i go to the alchemy shop in whiterun to check for myself

so i can just go around picking stuff up, and most of the stuff was white so its not a bug or glitch on your part. but i still stand by what i said earlier.

and now im gonna go to a city im not a Thane of and see what happens.

so i went to windhelm general goods store and even the wooden plates were red so i think the reason most were white in whiterun is because of the status of thane and how much people like us.

I had the same mindset as the op, said to myself, well he doesn't care, i'll take it.

Then a mercenary tried to kill me for stealing.


"Why be a Thief?" is not about being able to steal more red items, being a thief is about of using sneak in it's max power, and alchemy, and all of that.

Everyone can steal, that alone is not what makes you a thief.

I could say, why be a Warrior? if everyone can swing a blade...?

That's not how it works.
If something is marked as 'take', then its not stealing. Period. They wont call mercenaries to attack you because they literally don't care that you took it. The item has no ownership

It is a bug. The first character I went through it with had that issue of everything was free. Second character? Everything was red again.

There are some items marked as "Take" that do count as stealing though. I think there's a bug with item marking, I got killed after stealing items that weren't red at the Jarl's home in Whiterun while his children watched.

I'll make a new character, go through the agonizing first half hour of cutscenes, and see how it works out :cryvaultboy:

I've already stolen all the potions and ingredients on the counter.. they're way too overpriced for me to consider actually purchasing them.

Like I said, there's nothing in the shop I can take without stealing; even the basket in there counts as stolen if you take it.

Definitely noticed many items were just "take" and not "steal". Broke into some house in Whiterun and took all his books. I was the Thane at the time and also a Nord female so maybe he had the hots for me. I dunno.

i believe the reason most are white is because you are thane

Everything in Arcadia's Cauldron is red and says "steal" for me and she follows me everywhere I go in her shop. Same for all other shops and houses I have encountered. But I don't go out of my way finding stuff to steal because I'm a law abiding Imperial.

EDIT: And I'm also Thane of Whiterun.

same here , no idea what the OP is talking about , its the same as oblivion for me , everything i shouldnt take is red.

Here's the best thing about an offline RPG. You don't like being able to move items to steal them, then don't move the items to steal. Just RPG as a Thief.

If some of you aren't going to read this short thread, don't reply. Some of you are being very helpful and I respect that. The others are just clogging the thread.

There is also another way to steal without risk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmI799kEOSk

don't derail

I think it maybe a bug in the game, as in one houe in Whiterun for a quest, the locked room items were all Red in one playthrough & in another all white :shrug:

Unless it has something to do with the people liking you or some skill at a certain level :confused:

Derail? There is nothing of value in this thread to derail. You complained things are marked as free and not owned in-game, and others have said that's not the case in their game; someone has also said they've experienced this bug on one of their characters, which is evidence enough that it's not supposed to be this way.

or you could read the post above you

I believe in the bug here. Or some social unseen feature. Other weird thing:

My first game, NO ONE followed me around their house, so I could take anything without risk.

My new character can't go anywhere in a house without the owner looking at me.

well maybe you should have put that in your OP instead of expecting us to read and remember every single post in the thread.

Right, I'll keep editing the OP with all the information we develop in the thread.

thats what most people do. because reasonable people dont expect everyone to read every post in the thread so they put the pertinent information in the OP and add to it as it goes along so that people can join the thread later and still have an idea of whats going on without reading every post. that way you can get the most help quickly, otherwise people read the OP then keep posting the same answer over and over even if you qualify a statement in a different post because they dont read that post.

If you think there's not enough to steal, you haven't been looking in the right people's pockets.

Except for a few NPCs I've become "friends" with, most every house and store have every item marked as being stealing if I take it.

Perhaps you should explore more than just Avlos' house.

Yup it was a bug. I started a new character and stuff is properly labelled as 'steal'