Wrongly Accused of Stealing?

[Frisco Kid]

Hi everyone. So I'm not sure if this is a weird bug or what. I'm on the quest to take Martin and Jaffre to Cloud Ruler. We're traveling down the road when an Imperial Guard informs me that he's to arrest me because of my "stolen goods". Thing is, I don't have any. The first time this happened I loaded my previous quicksave to check my inventory to see if I had accidentally taken something I wasn't supposed to. No red hand icons on any of my items. So, needless to say, I'm a little perplexed.

Is this a bug, or is this storyline?

Thanks for reading.

[STK]

The only thing I can possibly think of is that maybe you took the wrong horse before leaving the priory? If not I would presume it is a bug. Did this also happen the second time, after you reloaded you saved game?

[Frisco Kid]

It did happen the 2nd time, yes. Coulda sworn I took the right horse, though. You know, I made sure that before I got on, the horseshoe icon wasn't red when I moused over. Oh well!

[Babytank]

Just pay the fine and see what happens.

[woomera]

yeah iwas playing the same quest last night and just told me that mages guild accused me of stealing.but i dont think its a bug,actualy its fun.its like the quest where the bruma queen has lost her nice painting and when you investigate you can accused any of worker in the watch tower when you talk to them.maybe somebody wants you down

[Pillage]

The same thing happened to me, at the same point in the MQ. First of all, the guards don't neccessarily accuse you of a certain crime, though they often tell you that your stolen goods are forfeit, whether you have any or not.
The reason this guard stopped me was I accidentaly killed a guard in Kvatch, during the storm to take back the castle (stupid scamps) (It was also my entry to the DB). Maybe you did something similar? Check your bounty to get an idea of what you may have done.

[Fljotsdale]

Interesting. I didn't have that problem. So I doubt if it's a bug. Maybe you had stolen something inadvertantly, and dropped it soon afterwards to lighten your load?

I know I got a visit from the DB when I hadn't murdered anyone! However, I HAD recently killed a villain who wasn't actually attacking me - one of the women in the Siren's Deception Quest - so I figured that must be the 'murder'.

Also something I noticed: I spotted an item in my inventory that had a red hand icon on it - but I had not stolen it. I'm positive of that. So, I dropped it. Then I put my cursor over it as it lay on the ground - and the red hand icon had gone! So I picked it up again and it stayed clean.

So then I went and stole a couple of items to see if I could do the same - drop 'em and pick 'em up clean. No dice. Stayed red-handed. *Sigh* And I had hoped I'd solved the problem of how to sell stolen goods without a Fence!

[Frisco Kid]

Aha! I think that might be it. Somewhere in the course of fighting (I forget which fight), I accidentally hit an ally soldier. It really wasn't my fault! He ran in front of me while I was swinging my sword. I even remember at one point Martin fighting me for some reason that is beyond me. I didn't know what to do, so I fought back haha. I knocked him unconscious, and when he came to, he was fine. He didn't attack me again. When I talked to him he just said we should be on our way.

In the future I'll just have to be more careful when swinging my weapon!

[Fljotsdale]

When fighting in the presence of allies, I find it best to attack enemies no-one else is fighting. I stay on the outskirts of the fight, and sometimes, when I see an ally is hard-pressed, I go in and cast Healing (other) spell on him/her. Best way to go, imo, because you are keeping your allies alive for later encounters, and if they get killed it isn't you getting the blame for it!

[Frisco Kid]

I'll keep that in mind! Although I think it would've been good if they had some kind of option you could check on or off that would prevent you from doing accidental damage to friendly targets.

[Fljotsdale]

Keep in mind that in RL, when soldiers fought with swords in times past, they must often have injured their allies; no way they could have had an option to stop the blade hitting a friend who got in the way!
And let's face it, even in modern warfare we get 'victims of friendly fire'.

In a game, though, you have the advantage of being able to devise strategies to avoid hitting your allies.

[drontnet]

I don't know if it's a bug, but a similar thing happened to me twice. During the 'Corruption and Conscience' quest I talked to the guard, went away for a while, then went back to the same guard and he arrested me. I reloaded and made sure I didn't steal anything, but he still arrested me. I just payed the fine (1 gold).

Another time I was arrested outside Bravil. I didn't have any stolen goods (I'm not a thief character, and only steal stuff if it's required in a quest so I'm positive I didn't steal anything). Payed the fines again which where now a stunning 7 gold!

[Niteowl3915]

I think I might know what's happening to you guys. In Oblivion, picking a lock to an unauthorized area constitutes a crime. Not actually entering the area, just picking the lock, maybe that'll help someone.
And yes, to confirm and reinforce what Pillage said, they never accuse you of what you actually did (unless you actually stole) they always accuse you of stealing.

[dot]

Same thing has happened to me. Accused of stealing from the mages guild and mages guild key removed from my possession. On reloading game, no stolen items. I have now 140 stolen items in my record and as far as I know have not stolen anything, i am a good girl, i am. I have not been accused of stealing those items. When accused I reload and do the last bit again. Since i am now paranoid, after visiting the mages guilds i run up to a guard to see if he says anything...tedious.

[fable]

Try this in the console:

player.setcrimegold 0

I found myself with a bounty as well, though I'd done nothing to incur it. There are apparently some glitches that cause it to happen.