Stealing Stealing involves the use of stealth and is the art of taking someone else ' s objects for one ' s own , preferably without detection or bloodshed . Background . Thieves and thievery have existed in Nirn for many years ; indeed , it could be argued that Lorkhan was the first thief of Mundus , stealing the life force of the Aedra to create the planet of Nirn . Since the dawn of civilization on Nirn , thievery has been an attractive business to people seeking to become rich quickly . These people see thievery as a lucrative opportunity . Notably , the Daedric Prince Nocturnal is the patron of thieves . She has been known to grant ( or withhold ) luck to or from thieves at her discretion . With her influence , a novice could suddenly be able to pick an impossible lock , or a master pickpocket ' s target could turn around at the worst possible time . Eventually over the course of Tamriel ' s history , thievery became such a widespread profession that Thieves guilds have spread throughout Tamriel ' s provinces , including Morrowind , Cyrodiil , and Skyrim . These guilds usually consist of fence s , guild contacts , and several thieves serving under a Guildmaster . The members are usually given jobs to do by senior members of the guild , or , at times , by the Guildmaster themselves . Though the guild and its members often have a somewhat negative reputation among other citizens , particularly guards and nobility , the guild members often greatly respect each other , usually teaching each other the various skills they have acquired over their thieving careers . Performance . A person ' s effectiveness in stealing is generally governed by their skill in sneak ing , and , in and , their agility skill as well . Depending on the job that is to be done , additional skills may be required , such as Lockpicking or Pickpocketing . For instance , burglary jobs require the thief to be skilled enough in lockpicking to pick the lock of the target ' s home , while fishing jobs require the thief to be skilled in pickpocketing in order to remain undetected . If someone is witnessed stealing an item or pickpocketing another person , a bounty may be placed on them and all armed witnesses will become hostile . Otherwise , the victim may just comment on the theft , usually confronting the thief and asking for or taking the item back , or possibly notifying the local guard . If there are any guard s present , they may try to apprehend the thief . If the thief does not contest the arrest , either choosing to pay off their bounty or serve an appropriate jail sentence , the guard will confiscate all stolen items that the thief is carrying , regardless if the items were involved in the crime in question or not . All stolen items are marked with a red hand icon . In , it is marked with " Stolen " , in the items menu and its name is in red text when withdrawn from a container . Most merchant s do not buy stolen goods , but fences and certain merchants ( such as Manheim Maulhand ) will , as well as merchants invested in by using the investor and fence perks . Mixing stolen and normal items . If an item is in inventory that was not stolen ( such as arrows , potions , etc . ) and one of the same items is stolen , it appears that all of the items in inventory of that type are stolen . This occurs because stolen and normal items are generally stacked together , and stolen items are listed first . This prevents any of those items from being sold to a merchant , even though there are one or more that were not stolen . This can be resolved by selling all the stolen items to a fence . Since the stolen items will be sold first , once they are all sold , then the " Stolen " flag will disappear . Also , each of the stolen items can be stored in a container ― as soon as the stolen flag disappears , the rest can be sold anywhere . Removing the stolen item flag . Permanently removing the stolen flag can be done several ways :