This is not a mod question perse, but I think the modding community could answer this question about an item crash I can recreate 100%

The first mission I did was no stone unturned. I took every gem I found and started dumping single stacks in a large pile on the floor of my house. Soon I had a large stash and eventually I got to the point where if I added more gems to the pile the game would crash. If I start a new pile in another spot of the house I add to that and the game runs fine.

My question is: Is there a "sprite" limit in game? If you have too many objects in one area you get an overflow of some sort?

p.s. I picked up the pile of 513 gems and reverse pickpocketed into Noster Eagle-Eye (the begger).

p.p.s. This is also the xbox 360 version.

Since you're playing Skyrim on Xbox360, which doesn't have mods, and want to ask a question probably about a quest then posting it here is in the wrong forum.

http://www.gamesas.com/forum/118-skyrim-general-discussion/(general questions about gameplay)

http://www.gamesas.com/forum/178-skyrim-cheats-hints-and-spoilers/(questions about quests)

http://www.gamesas.com/forum/181-xbox-360/(software or hardware issues)

It could have something to do with http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1384861-yet-another-huge-bug-interior-cell-as-a-static-limit/. Either way it sounds like you already know your problem is too many items, you'll have to try avoid approaching that limit.

All games have memory and object/CPU limits. They're just different depending on the platform. PC is likely far higher (which is why you can roll 1000 cabbage down a hill without crashing on PC) so it's definitely possible that you're hitting a limit. Bethesda wouldn't want to clean items up because their world is persistent, meaning there isn't really any option other than crashing. (Unless they built in 'prevention' and it said something like "You cannot drop this item! [too many items]" but that's a LOT of work for something that very few people will hit.