Forum: gaming.stackexchange.com
Tags: <the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim>
Title: Do shops/NPCs/houses replenish their contents after an act of thievery?
Question: I have started funding my alchemy addiction by stealing from shops and pick pocketing from NPCs. I am wondering if they ever get any contents back after I have stolen from them.

Answers:
sents: text: Yes Shop Inventory and money gets Restocked after 48 hour.
text: (This affects only the trader itself, not the whole cell.)
text: Cell Contents reset 240 hours after last visit.
text: (This affects items on shelves and tables.)
text: This happen with EVERY SINGLE Shop and EVERY Location except for your homes.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/29/alexanderpas
score: 15
sents: text: It seems that some places will, but some will not.
text: Shops will restock their items, and some locations will as well (such as Diabella's temple), but some will not (such as the outside marketplace in Whiterun).
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/296/Beska
score: 3
sents: text: Shopkeepers are supposed to restock every couple days, and I've noticed that the items laying out in the shop to be stolen match up with the list of items for sale, so I'd suspect they'd restock just as if you had bought the item.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/14289/Yamikuronue
score: 2
sents: text: Yes, some places do restock.
text: I can't say which types of places do, but as i'm playing a thief class, I have cleaned out several places, and occasionally when I go back (for whatever reason) the NPC's nostalgia for the lost items seems to have caused them to get new ones.
text: The best part is, I took the good stuff, so that means instead of only finding buckets and brooms lying around, I can pick up another Grand Soul Gem.
text: A good example of this, is the temple of Dibella in Markarth.
text: When I got sent there on the "hangover" quest, I cleaned it out.
text: When I went back to hand in the quest, all the items I had stolen were back, and I was able to clean them out all over again.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/5994/Pithlit
score: 2
sents: text: I don't know if they all restock.
text: But there are many shops that definitely do restock.
text: The potions, general goods, and smithing shops in Whiterun restock fairly quickly.
text: I run through them all (especially the alchemy one) every once in a while for some easy gold and materials.
text: I've stolen from the potions store 15+ times now, so that one definitely restocks.
text: I'm not sure how often they restock, but it's definitely not as long as a month.
text: Maybe a week or so.
text: Contrary to the post above, I don't believe it interacts at all with the inventory of goods that are being sold by the shopkeeper.
text: It's never had any effect on the items available to sell or her available gold.
text: And her gold is replenished much more often than the items I stole are.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/6139/victoriah
score: 1
sents: text: Save, kill the shop keeper, then reload.
text: Saving will result in the shop having its money and new items.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/43280/Knis
score: 1
sents: text: While others have stated that shops do restock after the items have been stolen, I feel I should point out a faster way to level alchemy - buy the ingredients.
text: Buy the ingredients, make the most expensive potions, sell the potions, save the game, kill the shopkeeper, load the save, buy the ingredients, make the most expensive potions, and on and on and on.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/41188/Astro
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
Shop and money is restocked after 48 hours. This isn't the same for homes.
It appears that shops get restocked and other places do not, there is not a clear rule though.