I started the quest 'Missing in Action' in Whiterun which is one of my favorites - a good fight, a rescue, and tons of loot. However, before you get to the good stuff, you have to do some sneaking and find the evidence. My level 39 PC found the required evidence undetected and noticed some tempting silver ingots at the same time. She doesn't do magic which means no Transmute spell which means silver is extremely rare (more so than ebony, actually). She nabbed the silver, turned in the evidence and proceeded out of the city for the next stage of the quest.

She wasn't even at the Whiterun carriage when some thugs showed up to teach her a lesson ( hi-larious ). After the fight, she looted them and turned back to Whiterun to sell everything but the guards at the gate were hostile and arrested her. She opted to pay the fine etc. etc.

So how did I get busted? There were no witnesses and she has no other bounty in the hold. I've done the Thieve's Guide quest before where you steal tons of stuff (though I've never indulged and nabbed extras) without getting caught. Does the game differentiate between quest required theft versus gratuitous theft? I've never stolen for the heck of it, is it always this tough or was this just circumstances?

Thanks!

That just happens. Even if you don't get caught, NPCs can send thugs after you. They can even do it if they're dead (if you steal before you kill them).

Thugs are dispatched by the game, randomly, if you commit a crime. This differs from Guards who only come after when a crime is reported to them.

What probably happened is one of the Thugs might not have been in combat mode when you attacked them, so it would be an assault. It would be interesting to see what the Crime report for your character stated before you were caught.

Yesterday, I ran into an orc skooma dealer by the Western Watchtower. I intended to see about getting moonsugar for "Elsweyr Fondue", but the dialogue box rolled and selected "Isn't that illegal?"

The orc attacked me, I beat him to the point where he cried "Mercy", the I turned and walked away. A momewnt later, he stood up, and like Bill in "Kill Bill" took five steps and dropped dead. I guess his Berserker power killed him. At any rate, I was immediately attacked by the tower guards, and arrested for murder...

Because I felt unfairly treated, I broke out of prison, and left for Riften for a long vacation - after ripping off all the guards.

Ah, interesting. I can't remember if all the thugs were attacking, but I usually let the opposition attack before doing anything just to be sure an assault doesn't occur. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I've overwritten the save file so there isn't a chance to see the crime record after the theft and before the arrest.

I'm mostly annoyed at loosing the silver ingots, to be honest. The dust-up with the thugs was great fun.

I like your style, I'll have to try being more of a bad**s next time I play a thief-ish build.

What was the fine? There is a list of crimes and the fines for those at the Wiki.

I can't be sure, I just accepted the option to pay. My best guess is 40 which, according to the wiki, is the amount for assault.

So basically, the dumb thugs were going to teach my Orc a lesson and they didn't start together? One of them was still... what? thinking about the curriculum? Like I said, hi-larious.