There are some obviously NPC-attached houses/places in the game, and it seems like NPC are completely fine if I search all their bookshelves, desks, etc. and take items stored there. Is doing such things somehow affects the game, or only stealing directly from NPC affects you?
That worries me is that I can take something, NPC will silently "ignore" this, but later that can have some consequences. In other words is it safe to take everything that don't causes immediate NPC reaction?
Best Answer
If a container is not owned by an NPC, you can take from it without consequence. Sometimes it is not obvious which containers are owned, and which aren't.
There are three common reactions which are immediately visible when you attempt to steal from NPCs. (this includes stealing directly from the NPC's person, as well as stealing from containers)
There are some differences in success rate between stealing items off of an NPC, and stealing from a container which is owned by them.
Let us assume that we have a 50% success rate at stealing any item.
So, if you are stealing from a container, make it count and grab as much as you can. The penalties if you mess up are the same for stealing one item as they are for stealing one hundred items.
Note: Your chance of stealing an item is impacted by 3 factors: