Let me see if I get it, just to be sure. If somebody -does- steal the loot, you want them to inform the DMs? Is it as a courtesy, like "Im in your base, stealing your loots"? Does that mean you'll be forced to give it back right away? Will the others get some other compensation instead? I mean, heck, it's the polite thing to do so I'll do it in either case, but I'm just curious as to what actions the DMs would take with that knowledge.

[EDIT] I missed the question the first time. Er. We'll tell them to play nice?

I dunno. We'll see how IC it is, or whether its just their OOC greed taking over, and decide on a case-by-case I guess.

And also - we'll figure out whether any of the other party members would have seen the little gnomish wizard drag a full plate twice his size out of a barrel.

In many situations it makes perfect IC sense and is totally desirable for a character to be a thief or try to make off with <blank>. In other situations, it's just a pain to run some generic DM quest, drop some cash, and not realize it all went to a single person.

It depends. Just tell us, and depending on the situation we'll react -- anywhere from, "That's fine" to "I'd rather you shared that"