Because it's a stupid decision. Whether it's easy to get past or not isn't the issue.

Um.........this game has dragons and magical spells that can heal wounds. Skyrim =/= Realistic

Here's an example: There is no levitation in Oblivion, but you could exploit a bug where you could jump on an item (like a paintbrush) to get to extremely high places. Would you say to a Morrowind fan bemoaning the lack of levitation, "Why are you so up in arms about it? Clearly you can do the same thing with a paintbrush."

You think it's a stupid decision. Way more people would complain if you're suggestion above was implemented. You lose your free stuff, get over it.

And Roland if you think that they intentionally made the AI exploitable I don't think you have the capacity to make a valid argument.

ITT: Nitpicking

Skyrim IS realistic but not in a humanly world sense. Dragons act realistic for example, just because they don't exist doesn't mean they are not realistic. They are realistic based upon what will they do, how would they react, etc if they were real.

Sigh... Nothing to do with what I meant.

Great then, lets include psychic guards again because this realism thing means nothing in a game with dragons.

Not sure if you're trolling or just have severe reading comprehension issues. In no way did any of my posts come close to suggesting that.

Your suggestion is several times worse than Bethesda's system, OP.
It's not an oversight by Bethesda, it's exactly what they want the game to be. It's been that way for the last two games at least.

Actually you just made me remember something. It's been confirmed that NPCs interact with objects you drop has it not? Perhaps if you were to drop all your items and then go off to jail when you return most of your 'stash' has been picked clean.

I will be pleased if this is the case.

...Um Okay? I was not aware that you knew more than the developers.
Come back when you made a better game with a better system.

Get rid of your hot items quick!

They would complain because they find it a harsh punishment, not because it's unrealistic. That's a lot better in my opinion.

You're comparing obvious intentional design to an unintentional exploit and you think it's a valid argument. And you're calling me a troll. :rolleyes:

It's a gameplay mechanic so that joining the Thieves Guild gives the ability of selling stolen goods to fences.

Big difference between realism and verisimilitude. Are marked stolen items part of the world's internal consistency?
Given some of the other weird crap that goes on, I personally don't have a problem.
To be consistent though, if there is some bizarre magical way that merchants and guards have of knowing what is kosher or not, Nirn's version of UV markings, then there really should be more non Thieves' Guild fences to buy these marked goods. If there is a gap in the market, someone will fill it.

Getting caught and loosing items you stole previously with no witnesses around doesnt make a whole lot a sense...

Ok as far as one of my favorite strategies ...

"guards are coming quick drop before they see me.."

It has been said that citizens wont just ignore items of value left on the ground.

In Oblivion when im in the act of thievery in the marketplace I drop them off in my waterfront house chest... then pay up.

Invalid. If no one ever complained about anything, no developers in the world would give a crap about making better decisions next time.

Of course it's a valid argument. Unless you're suggesting that "Resist Arrest, Drop all stolen items, Yield, Pay Fine, Recover items" was part of the dev's design document.

They're both realistic. Some countries will confiscate everything, some only the stolen goods. This is a world of magic, I'd just say that there's an aura imprinted on the object that allows people to recognize the object as stolen. Perhaps the thieves guild has a way of removing the aura, or it fades away. You're "unrealistic" argument doesn't really fit the world.

Roland, that's called exploiting the system. You like to cheat, fine by me. I don't.

Obviously it was since they let you do it

It's magic.

The property probably wouldn't be classified as stolen if the legal owner is dead.

I'm just saying, you claim for Skyrim to be a game attempting realism when I can ask you to go outside and see if there is a dragon to fight to which we both already know the answer. The point is at the end of the day, it's still a video game and some consequences just remain abstract such as losing all your stolen items when arrested. Not everything is going to be 1:1 realism outside of dragons and all that. Complaining about the idea of losing all stolen items because there's no way the guards would know is logically the same as me arguing that when that fire Mr. Dragon blows on our characters hits us, we should burn alive right then and there unless we stop, drop, and roll. Both standpoints argue for what you would naturally "expect" if those situations were ever real, but it's a video game and sometimes mechanics outweigh immersion. If it's such a big worry to you, then don't get caught. Or go for the PC version to mod it out.