Shoplifting for gold

For a character with high Pickpocketing, stealing a few valuable, light items can avoid dungeon combat. Bank spare gold first, take only the pieces worth the risk, then sell them at a shop that buys their item type. Merchants accept stolen goods, but a guilty verdict confiscates stolen items you carry.

The detection check uses Pickpocketing, shop quality, the basket's total weight and its item count. Higher-quality shops are harder to steal from. Taking an entire shelf is much riskier than taking one light piece.

These examples use a quality-10 shop and a basket containing one item:

Detection chance is always at least 5%, even with better skills.

This is a specialist method, not a reliable beginner income. Online counters remain staffed around the clock. The old trick of selling a stolen item back onto a shelf and stealing it again no longer works: a stolen item disappears from shop stock when sold. See Crime and the law for the consequences of being caught.