This part of the guide covers how to be an effective evil Avatar.
The most important thing is to minimise observers. For example if you go into a house or a back room be sure to shut the doors, curtains and windows.
If you cannot do this (for example you are in a store while the owner is still awake) wait until they are a good distance away and their back is turned and then open your inventory. This pauses the game world and allows you to loot at your leisure.
Try not to move items around as this will often result in someone noticing your meddling; if you don't want to take it leave it where it is, and if you want it drop it straight into your inventory. If you grab an object by accident you can return it to where it was by attempting to drop it somewhere where it can't go, for example onto a wall or roof or in the water.
Be sure to have no open container obscuring the building's occupant; you need to be able to see them at all times, because when they say "Stop that, or else!" or similar it's time to stop looting.After an item has been in someone's inventory–not just in a barrel or crate on your ship or carriage–it becomes "yours" and can be freely moved and used without argument. However since you can't put chests, crates or barrels into your inventory without them being empty and having a lot of you cannot very easily "cleanse" them; therefore passersby will often say "Do not touch that!" if they catch you shifting them, even if you've had that container for hours and brought it from another town.
The one place where you cannot steal is the armory in Monitor. Attempting to take anything there, even when no observer is in the immediate area, will bring the guards down on you.