I got the invitation to the thieves guild saying I need to steal a shirt from a residence to prove my worth. I don't know if i got a bad mission or what but nothing is going right. I get to the town and enter every house except for 3 locked ones. I go in all the open houses - none of them show up on my map with the name of the resident they gave me. One house does show up as "Residence". I use Open spell to get into that house as its locked and open a wardrobe stealing a blouse which i assume is not the same as a shirt. There is a ladder leading upstairs but I already used my mana on the Open spell and the game appears bugged as I can't climb the ladder. Another issue I stole something from another house in town before this house and as soon as I pluck the item guards show up which I took out. How do I steal an item without guards showing up do I have to sneak or invisibility?

What city are you in and what is the name of the residence you're looking for? Also, click on the ladder.

The thieves guild note is sending me to "Yeomsly Residence in Chesterleigh". So I hit "W" key and for find I entered "Chesterleigh". I went to the town of Chesterleigh. I cannot find the right house. I am loading an old save to see if I can get a different mission. I will let you know if it bears fruit.

Thanks for the ladder trick apparently all I had to do was click on it. If you have tips for swimming I would appreciate it as I get stuck and can't swim up a lot of times which I don't remember being an issue when I played 15 years ago or whenever it was.

Ask commoners in Chesterleigh about any person named Yeomsly, and also ask about the residence itself under the 'General' tab in the conversation window. Barring those, ask tavern owners and business proprietors. Lastly, hit F3 (or whatever info mode is bound to) and click on houses as you wander by.

As for swimming, a lot of people erroneously try to move around using WSAD. Check and see what your 'swim up' and 'swim down' binds are; use those accordingly. If you're still slogging around and struggling, remove most of your weight. Weight will weigh characters down to a tremendous degree in Daggerfall. Dump all excess armor, weapons, and gold -- and then take the dip. You'll be gravy.

Thank you so much. I found the appropriate house by clicking on every single door and marking them "locked" or "empty" if I explored them. I finally clicked on a locked one and the words "Yeomsly Residence" displayed on the automap.

If you know anything about how to steal without town guards getting involved, this is something I am googling now. It seems as though every time I loiter in the mage guild while on guard duty, or steal an item in a house, 4 guards immediately arrive which I can dispatch with my 100 strength Chaos Warrior but it is annoying and I don't want bounties or bad rep out there so I haven't saved after killing any yet. Then again there is a guild of cut throats I forget the name that I think you have to kill people to get an invite to.

Edit: I am now a member of the thieves guild! thanks for your help. Also I think weight was the problem with the swimming but I will test it out.