We all know those bandits in and outside Bleak Falls Barrow, well just now as I was going through on a new character (CWO you know), and a thought occurred to me about them, and why they was there.

This might be common knowledge as it is blindingly obvious when you look at the facts the game presents us with, but I have never seen anyone else mention it before, I'm not the most active, but I lurk a bit.

Anyway, here is my theory.

Delphine hired them to rob Lucan's shop of the Golden Claw to gain access to the Dragonstone?

She lives local and will probably have seen it displayed in his shop.

She knows a fair bit about dragon culture.

Farengar mentions that a good source told him it was there, this turns out to be Delphine when you drop it off to him.

Then again saying that I just remembered about his journal, and it doesn't really mention anything, so, I guess this was useless haha.

What do you guys think anyway? Seeing as I already typed this up, might as well see what others think.

Arvel stole the claw because he thought it could leave him to a great treasure hidden into the tomb; the other bandits were his gang. There's nothing more about that, I'm afraid.

Nice theory, but I don't think that's the case. It would have made Delphine more interesting though.

Also, what was the point of bringing up the supposedly shady origins of Lucan getting his hands on the claw to begin with? That was something that went absolutely nowhere.

Well it could be similar circumstances to the store owner in Winterhold. Someone sold her a claw

an she was happy to find someone who would buy it.

Lucan on the other hand could have had an adventurer come in and sell it, not knowing how close they were to where it would open up its treasures and he liked it so much he kept it on display.

It's obvious he didn't know what it was for, the thief however had figured out its purpose.

I wish they had done a better job explaining delphine. Is sge lying that she has employers and is she the one writing the letters telling us to find word walls

They don't need to explain; just make your own idea.

This theory has been mentioned before. I said at the time that I thought Delphine hired Arvel to steal the claw. Arvel purposely stationed his bandit buddies near the entrance (instead of taking them along to help him fight his way through the dungeon) so that they would not be in a position to object when he used the claw and took the loot for himself. It seems obvious to me that it was Arvel's plan all along to betray both his gang and Delphine.

Arvel mentioned something about power inside the barrow, so that should be considered.

I wish they had done a better job with Delphine