History Main / KleptomaniacHero

* In ''SpongebobSquarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom'' and TheMovie, you can randomly destroy items like chairs, and tables for absolutely no reason at all. Actually, destroying some stuff REWARDS you with socks or golden spatulas - the {{MacGuffin}}s of the games. Weirdly, when smashing a TV while Mermaid Man is watching, you are granted a sock.

* In the game ''{{Nox}}'' by Westwood (before it was eaten by EA), the character is generally able to destroy and loot anything that's possible to destroy or loot, even in friendly towns and cities. In fact, in one room, the character walks in and a woman says something to the effect of "What are you doing in my house?" But if the character opens a chest, he can take a few hundred gold, and [[ApatheticCitizens she just stands there]].

* ''BaldursGate''. Some items were free for the taking, and others (marked in red) would cause the guards to be summoned if any NPC (this literally meant "any NPC" -- a lone cat qualified as a witness) observed you taking them and you failed your thieving rolls. This was particularly annoying because there was little consistency to it; if you really wanted to take anything that could be taken, a lot of reloads were in order. (This editor learned to fear the City Watch of any town in ''Baldur's Gate'' as being the most deadly opponent in the game: If you took ''anything'', even if one of your NPC allies, controlled by the game A.I., randomly opened a chest or cupboard in a stranger's house, the guards would appear out of nowhere and kill your group stone dead.)

* ''MogWorld'', a book focusing on [=NPC=]s in an MMORPG, lampshades this. Turns out local villagers are not very fond of adventurers, and among their long list of complaints against them is this.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Total aversion in ''BelowTheRoot''. Unless it is on a public walkway, you need to find the owner and ask nicely. You also had limits on what you could carry, dictated by the character's strength stat. Pomma couldn't carry much at all.

* Blood Ravens in ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'', [[FanNickname nicknamed]] "Bloody Magpies" for collecting heaps of gear clearly marked as belonging to other chapters. For most part they claim to have this recovered from the fallen heroes and wielded in their honor. For lest part...

* In ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'', the player's character at one point can eat a candy bar on a table next to [[spoiler:a Little Sister, in Tenebaum's safe house. The Little Sister says "That's mine!" in a quiet, indignant voice. If you eat the other candy bar on the table, she loudly says "Hey!"]]

* BioshockInfinite - has a bit of a subversion. During the peaceful segments of the game, you can go through shops, and certain items (mostly cash registers, and one time a rare shotgun) are highlighted in red. Taken them is considered stealing and will set the local cops on you. However, the majority of the time, even before the place goes to Heck, you can grab anything with impunity.

** A quite odd example comes from the item Leftovers. This incredibly rare item makes your Pokémon recover a certain percentage of its HP every turn. How do you find it? By searching in a trash can.
*** Or underneath the place where a Snorlax was sitting. [[{{Squick}} Ewwwww...]]

** Subversion in the ''Mystery Dungeon'' games. Whilst yes, you ''can'' steal from Kecleon's shop inside dungeons (by picking up items then not paying for them), it is rather inadvisable, as Kecleon ''will'' fight back, and he happens to be stronger than ''any'' of the story mode bosses.

* Subverted in the anime ''MahoujinGuruGuru'', where one character actually introduces another character to the idea of stealing herbs from homes, which backfires on the second character. This anime plays with other tropes, including a scene at the end where [[spoiler:the characters defeat everything except the final boss, then leave without fighting him.]]

* Being a game with simular gameplay mechanics as Terraria, it shouldn't come as a surprise that stealing whole structures is doable in ''{{Minecraft}}''. Certain types of blocks can only be optained through either Creative mode or mining them from pre-generated exisiting structures.

* BioshockInfinite - has a bit of a subversion. During the peaceful segments of the game, you can go through shops, and certain items (mostly cash registers, and one time a rare shotgun) are highlighted in red. Taken them is considered stealing and will set the local cops on you. However, the majority of the time, even before the place goes to Heck, you can grab anything with impunity.

** In ''Black 2/White 2'' the player can get a meddle for checking out enough empty trash cans just to see if there was something inside them.

** It gets very, very odd in the sequel, which has streamlined the loot system to involve only credits, medigel, metals, and research plans. Lootable safes, PDAs, and computers containing credits are everywhere, and the game mechanic that rewards taking the time to hack them open continues to be at odds with immersion. In one of the first planets, you enter a quarantine zone with a lot of empty apartments. Most players loot everything in sight. At one point you can even convince some refugees that you are here to rescue them, then hack their safe while they watch silently. Then you come across some other looters, who you can chastise for being despicable looters. You then proceed to a medical clinic set up for the plague victims. A background character comments on the despicable looters and their despicableness. You can then proceed to swipe valuable metals and medigel from the clinic, all without anyone batting an eyelid. A lampshade hanging is all but expected but never occurs. Perhaps the writers meant to keep this bit of HypocriticalHumor deliciously subtle.

* Strong Bad in ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople''. It's justified, though, since it's entirely in-character for [[CardCarryingVillain him]].

* ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'' - Justified: You're a [[VillainProtagonist professional bank robber]]. In addition to the main quest, your character can grab money and gems that are found in reasonable places - bank offices, unorganized narcotics labs, fancy jewel cases, and Franz-Jaegar safes. In the sequel, there's an entire mission dedicated to stealing small loot from bank's safe deposit boxes.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' tries to break this habit as well. You can open the cabinet in your Knight Academy dorm room for a free blue Rupee, but opening other people's cabinets rewards you with the message "You really shouldn't look through other people's things..." Since the surface has been going through an apocalypse for a few thousand years at this point in the timeline, there are no houses to vandalize, but you ''can'' break the pots in an ancient temple holding something very, very important and plot-related (protip: one of them always contains a fairy). There are hardly any pots in the residential quarters of Skyloft. Even sitting in other people's chairs gets you called out (Gortram scolds you for sitting in his chair, Fi says that [[DeadpanSnarker you really should find that thing you were looking for before you take a rest]]). Most notably, breaking the chandelier with the heart piece on it in the Lumpy Pumpkin gets you a hilarious facial expression from the owner, a good talking-to, and [[SideQuest unpaid work]] [[WorkOffTheDebt until you pay the thing off.]]

** In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', stealing anything "owned" by another character will make you lose karma points (unless said owners are slavers, in which case you aren't punished), and if the owner catches you doing it, they'll take back what you stole. Do it enough [[ShopliftAndDie and they'll attack you]]. Then their neighbors will also call you out for it. Shopkeepers also have their inventories stored in unpickable containers, the key to which can only be looted from their corpses, not pick pocketed (most of the time). If a computer terminal is owned, you'll lose karma each time you use it. Thankfully, balancing out the karma loss is easy enough thanks to the water beggars (give them water, you get Karma, repeat until good).
** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' is much less forgiving in this department. You can steal with impunity, but the Karma loss still applies and there are no water beggars to give to. Karma itself is also damn hard to earn due to the GrayAndGreyMorality setting; stealing from any faction will cost you Karma no matter how evil they are, but there are scant few missions which grant it in turn.

->''[[InsistentTerminology It's not "Stealing". It's "Adding to my Inventory.]]"''
--> --'''Ben''', ''Videogame/BenThereDanThat''