Stealing, getting caught, and alignment.

Orie

I'm fairly new to this game and i have a few questions surrounding alignment, stealing, getting caught and treasure chests.
Ok so first things first does stealing change your alignment or does any choice you make effect your alignment, I have played many games in which your alignment changes based on what actions you take such as stealing and while i dont think that occurs in this game i want to be sure.
Second i have been caught once stealing something i didnt think was going to be considered stealing because i was just interacting with something in a shop so... when is stealing, stealing?
Finally what are the rules on foot lockers and chests etc that are locked is that stealing to open them ive opend a few in broad day light with 2 or so people around and nothing happened if its bad why does no one say "wtf that mine"!?

Lindeblom

Stealing in itself doesn't do anything to your alignment. If someone sees you they will gather guards that confronts you, there can be some different outcome from this but you will probably end up losing some reputation, not a change in alignment.
Stealing in a store is risky business, IF you get caught the shopowner (and customers) will go hostile and attack you. If you defend yourself and kill them you will face massive loss in reputation. And you will not be able to use that store again.
As long as the chests are out in the open, in enemy territory or with no one around, I would say it is safe to steal.

Jalily

There are no alignment changes for stealing or even murder. In the first game, there's an Easter egg item that reverses a character's alignment, but other than that, your alignment is just a static roleplaying guide with little effect other than your starting reputation, the familiar you get (if you're an arcane caster or a beast master), and a few dialogue choices.

Your party members' alignments are far more important from the game's perspective since they determine the reputation ranges that will keep the NPC from leaving. Good-aligned characters will leave at <= 2, neutral-aligned characters will leave at <= 1, and evil-aligned characters will leave at >= 19. In the first game, there is no way other than the aforementioned Easter egg item to change your party members' alignments.

In this game, two types of stealing will cause the guards to be called if someone sees you: stealing from a shop via the Steal interface while you're looking at the goods and opening a container that is considered "owned" by someone else. Which containers are considered owned is somewhat arbitrary, but locked (and sometimes unlocked) containers in private homes are generally not safe to open with anyone watching. Neither are the shelves in some stores (the game is not consistent here, and some shopkeepers apparently don't mind if you take money right out of their desks). @Lindeblom gave a good overview of which containers are safe.

If you have at least 9 reputation and are caught stealing in an area patrolled by the Flaming Fist (i.e. not Nashkel), you will lose 1 reputation point no matter what you say to the guard. If you are caught by one of the soldiers in Nashkel, you won't lose reputation, but may successfully bribe them. If you are quick or stealthy, you might be able to run out before the guards arrive. This will prevent reputation loss in Flaming Fist-patrolled areas.

A third type of stealing, pickpocketing, will result in the target turning hostile if they catch you, but no guards will ever be called.

Only taking something from a shop via the Steal interface will result in the item being marked as stolen. This means you can't sell it to most shops and must find a fence if you want gold for it.

kamuizin

I suggest the rogue rebalancing mode if you want to exploit better the steal/pickpocket feature of baldur's gate.