Quote Originally Posted by Avilan the Grey View Post
About 3 seconds after the guy runs off, the rightful owner of the item should run up to you, ask if you have seen the guy and then you can either lie and keep the item or hand it over to the second guy. In either event the second guy catches and kills the first guy (so no, he will never come back). Of course you can also kill the second guy and take the rest of his stuff, too...
Really? I don't believe that happened in either case. The instance with the dagger occurred in Dawnstar when I had just gotten the museum quest. I took it and just went on my way (may have fast travelled shortly thereafter). The second one was somewhere outside of Whiterun I think, near some kind of necromancy altar if I remember right (at the least, it was something unusual in the middle of the wilderness). The guy who gave the shield to me started sneaking off afterwards and I watched him for a while, because he seemed to be moving toward a couple giants, but eventually went on my way. Never approached by anybody asking about either item. At least I don't have to keep lugging them around just in case.