You can just run far enough away that they stop chasing you...? Which is a lot easier than putting it back. Also, you can read the description of items lying around by mouse over if you hold alt, and items in inventory by initiating pickpocket without actually taking the item in question (technically it doesn't count as stealing yet; no accuses, you can pickpocket the same guy again after this)
Another thing, chameleon skin doesn't cloak the lack of an item at where it should be; of course they will make a beeline to anyone suspicious (your other characters) in the vicinity. But as long as your thief themself doesn't get accosted, you can just run far enough away, unchain the thief from the rest of your party, and just let them search your clean characters.
Tip #1:even if you get caught redhanded, as long as you don't progress the dialogue, you can have another character teleport the accosted character away, and then run before you get accosted again.
Tip #2: ~10 seconds after finding themself stolen from, the NPC will forget the theft altogether, as long as they don't catch you before the reset in their memory.
