In Skyrim, why aren’t all pickpocketed items marked as stolen

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I've noticed that some items that I've pickpocketed are not marked as stolen and I can freely sell them to any merchant that buys that item type.

It's not all items of a specific type. For example, some stolen necklaces are not marked as stolen and some are.

Some examples are Calcemo's Ring, shields, imperial bows, and lots of random jewelry. Basically, anyone unfortunate enough to walk past me gets their pocket picked.

Is this a bug? Could it be a side effect of a mod? Or is it some game mechanic that I don't quite understand yet?

I play on PC with Hearthfire and Dragonborn DLCs.

Note that I've never given any of these items to a follower or put them in a container of any kind. I've also never used the fence items option of the Amazing Follower Tweaks mod.

Thank you.

Update

I've tried starting a fresh game with no mods installed and it still happens. So, it doesn't look like this is caused by a mod. I guess it'll just be a mystery. It's a beneficial effect, anyway.

Best Answer

There is a mechanic in Skyrim called disposition. There is a table on that UESP page listing the different types of relationships the player can have with NPCs, and the level of disposition necessary to achieve it:

Value   Console name    Item value
-4      Archnemesis     
-3      Enemy   
-2      Foe     
-1      Rival   
 0      Acquaintance    
 1      Friend          25
 2      Confidant       50
 3      Ally            100
 4      Lover           500

The page states that

The default relationship rank is 0 (Acquaintance) and it can vary between -4 and 4. The gold amount is the maximum value of an item you may take from someone at a certain rank without it being considered theft.

I know for certain that this applies to items they own in their house. For instance, if you follow Hadvor to Riverwood, then shortly after speaking with Alvor you can loot most of the stuff from his house.

I assume it applies to pickpocketing as well. Therefore, these items that aren't marked as stolen were probably stolen from a Friend or better, and were under the allowed value.

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