Committing crimes?

[SapientNode]

Why is it that in the dark of night I Rob a house and I get tagged with a crime?
With the fine the goods stolen are not equivalent or barely are to the fine.
This renders stealing almost pointless.
I played a thief character but lockpick stealth and disarm seem irrelevant. Especially with the abundance of wands that can be refilled indefinitely.
I have tested stealing on a whole town and besides the amulets in matras I barely walk away with 400 gold. I have been buffing my thief skills a lot too.
Is there anyway to break in and steal stuff and get away with it.
It's like there is CCTV everywhere.
If not is there any way to reset skill points?

[Elendil / Redshift]

Playing a thief means you have to be sneaky. You can avoid getting caught by the guards if you scout the locations. There are ways in and out of cities which don't have guards, for example.

If you buy a Skeleton/Warded key, you can use it many times, meaning more profit for you.

Even if you get caught and put into prison, there are ways out without losing any skill points and you can even find extra riches.

Playing a thief is not the easiest in the game and the Disarm skill is admittedly not that useful (we'll work on this in The Quest 2), but it can be profitable and satisfying.

(You can't reset your skill points.)

[SapientNode]

Thanks for the response.

The thing I do not get is the auto crime tag when no one is around.
And if I break out of jail I am back with the crime tag which somewhat makes sense.
Since I have not went to prison too often I don't know if it ends up being profitable when fines are factored in.
Can guards sense you in the distance or only when you are in their square?

[Elendil / Redshift]

If you break in at night, you'll get less crime added to your rating. And you can avoid most guards, they only catch you if you enter their square.

Also, there are people around who will help you get rid of your crime rating. It's not free, but cheaper than paying fines.