Yes, it's a bit easy to steal, but i don't think its very unrealistic for the people in town to be unsuspecting.
I think they should be suspecting when you try to sell their stuff to them.
I agree, but that would require an ownership tag for every item. It would work, but i don't see the benefit of this additional coding work, all the player will do is sell to a different merchant. Do you know a good stealing system in another game ?
The only decent ones i remember were in Gothic 2 and the Thief series.
