Forum: gaming.stackexchange.com
Tags: <the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim>
Title: How do I pay off my bounty when the only options are to fight back or be arrested?
Question: What should I do if I have a bounty but a guard will only let me fight or go to prison?  This happened to me in the city of Solitude.

Answers:
sents: text: Are you sure this isn't part of a quest?
text: This happens in a Markath quest, where going to jail starts the next stage of the quest.
text: Details are in the spoiler below.
text: This quest
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/205/Sigh
score: 4
sents: text: You can't.
text: If those are you only options, then your crime was so severe that a mere bounty won't satisfy the law-keepers.
text: Your options are to go to jail (where your bounty will be wiped clean) or die.
text: Afterthought:
text: Third Option: KILL!
text: THEM!
text: ALL!
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/15095/Ender
score: 3
sents: text: If you have this then your bounty exceeds your current gold.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/43819/user43819
score: 2
sents: text: Travel around, you will eventually meet a bounty hunter who will offer you to pay your bounty + 10% finder's fee, then your bounty will be cleared.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/19827/kotekzot
score: 1
sents: text: You can try console commands to 'force' paying your bounty.
text: Make a save game first, and then in the game, open up the console by pressing ~ , then click on one of the arresting/assaulting guard(s).
text: The guard's RefID (a bunch of numbers) should show up in the screen.
text: After that, type in paycrimegold in the console.
text: That should put you just outside the nearest jail of the hold you're in, with no more bounty on you while still keeping your stolen items.
text: More info on the paycrimegold console command at the UESP wiki's "Console" article.
text: paycrimegold - Pay the bounty for the faction targeted NPC belongs to (the bounty gold will be removed from your inventory).
text: The first 0-1 choice refers to being sent to jail: entering 1 will let you be teleported to the respective faction's jail, entering 0 won't.
text: The second 0-1 choice refers to keeping your stolen items: entering 0 means you do not lose your stolen items, entering 1 means you do.
text: If you don't add any choice you will be sent to jail without losing your stolen items.
text: The faction ID is needed if you can't target an NPC.
text: May also help in case guards attack you on sight.
text: Note that if you don't have enough gold, you can also use the console to add gold to your character.
text: The console command to do that is player.additem f x where x is the amound of gold you would like to add.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/4797/galacticninja
score: 1
sents: text: You can also leave for awhile and come back in a month 30 days
text: and they will not be hostile and pay or serve your sentence
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/86519/Pokemon
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
Travel around and find a bounty hunter who will pay your bounty. You can also leave for a while and come back in a month.
While this problem seems to occur when the player lacks money, the community suggests different ways to by pass the problem.