Maybe there could be some kind of "Shoplifter" trait you get for stealing 50 items, than another "upgraded version" of the trait at 100 Items ("Thief"), and another upgraded version at 250/500 stolen items ("Kleptomaniac"). These traits would have a negative side-effect for your reputation ( and/or initial disposition), although I'm not sure what the positive sides would be. It should make sense, because if you do it enough, even if no one sees you, there are bound to be a lot of times you steal before or after an NPC sees you and suspicious would rise.
Would that be a satisfactory downside to stealing everything?
The loot certainly needs more tweaking, but don't expect there to ever be a waterfall of loot - it's not that type of game and well-balanced (which is not right now) scarcity creates gameplay . That said, I agree that it's a bit too stingy for the moment, but I have the impression that there's something bugged in the loot system itself. We'll look into it.
And starting gold is something that got lost somewhere in the flux - we'll fix that too. At least 50 gold , otherwise we won't be able to sell gold via in-game micro transactions.
I probably should add that the latter was a joke
The loot system probably doesn't need a huge amount of fixing, just some tweaking.
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