Generally, when nobody's looking, you're safe: on the other hand, stealing—and getting caught—will place a bounty on your head for half the item's value.
There aren't any permanent consequences for stealing in front of witnesses, but they will eventually report you to the authorities, which will start the bounty and alert the guards.
There is a small chance that you rob from someone who can tell when you stole something from them, even if nobody's around. The consequence of doing that is a set of hired thugs sent after you. This seems to only happen once: if you defeat the thugs, you're safe until the next high-value theft.
I've found the best way to make money is pick up ingredients in the wild, make potions and sell them.
Easy to find
Wild ingredients are easy to find. Or you can buy ingredients from many vendors. Avoid buying expensive ingredients like void salts, fire salts, daedra hearts etc. The return isn't worth the cost.
They're light
Most ingredients weigh little. If you make a lot of potions and can't sell them all, the potions also don't weigh a lot - 100 potions weigh about the same as 1 piece of heavy armor. Their value/weight ratio is high.
They sell for a lot
I regularly sell a 0.1 weight potion for $200. There are other items with higher value/weight ratios, but I can quickly make 10 of these with ingredients that aren't hard to find. This works best for invisibility, because you can sell it for squillions. I've made around 20k mostly from potions.
I have seen potions with values in the thousands!
It's good for your alchemy skill
It'll also help your alchemy skill, and as your alchemy skill gets higher, you'll make more valuable potions.
You'll always have potions
There's nothing worse than getting into a battle without the right potions. Having a few spare potions for health and magika on hand will help you a lot!
Win win win!
Best Answer
I haven't found any use yet. They didn't do anything at the forge, workbench, or grindstone, so I'm guessing they're just junk.