I'm sure this topic has been covered at length a thousand times already, but since it just happened to me, I want to throw down my two cents.

If you want to steal from me all of the uber 1337 l00t that I earned through role-play, fine, have at it. All of my characters are disposable, especially on this server, and that goes triple for their items.

All I ask in return is that you give me back what I put into getting those items, namely, a somewhat enjoyable experience. You want my sword? Beat me senseless and take it from my bloody hand, or better yet, challenge me to a duel and knock it from my hand, or better still, get me stupid drunk and win it from me in a bet.

For crying out loud, if you're going to yank something from my bag while I'm in the fugue plane, don't take my main weapon, especially if you're in my own party and it's clear that I'm not permadead. Don't take something from me that I can't replace. I don't know if that counts as griefing, but it feels like it on my end.

I play plenty of evil characters, and I loot plenty of dead PCs. However, when I go rifling through a level 7 Seeker's belongings, I might drool over their hyperpowered loot, but I absolutely don't touch it. I'll help myself to a small sample of their potions, minor wands, or other disposables, but I leave their quest rewards alone.

I don't touch that stuff because I know how much time and effort they put into their characters, and if I've just got my hand in their bag while they're dead and can't even so much as make a reflex save, I didn't earn the right to take it.

I'm going to extend that level of respect to every player I encounter. Please show the same respect to me.

I'd just point out, if someone in your party robs you--tell the right people IC and get it back.

Looting a character mid-quest just before he respawns is generally not something the DM team likes to see. We'd much prefer banditry, con-games, etc. as mentioned by the original poster. However, such situations are best either handled OOC'ly by contact with the DM team expressing concern or IC'ly through the many methods available.

As the person in question for said event [Which I believe I very easily could be], Before I could contact you individually away from your friends, you left.

I'll admit my methods of going about it weren't exactly the most sophisticated, I thought going the route of PMing you "Don't worry, you'll get it back" removed some of the intrigue and mystery.

More back on topic however,

In General, should your character take anything of unique power, basically any artifact that has a custom description, it isn't the sort of thing you want to miserly hide away with, especially if you know the person is alive or if his friends would be interested in the item. Half the fun of getting something stolen (I'd hope, having had things stolen on numerous occasions) is pursuing the thief ICly, then getting bloody revenge or making a deal with him.

Try to figure out if the name they gave you was an alias or not.

Try to figure out who knows them and where you can find them.

Try to figure out the best way to get revenge

Try to figure out the best way to get said item back.

Scripted Quests are often something that are seen as stagnant and repetitive, and clearly my attempt to spice it up with a bit of detective work mixed with a hint of Kill Bill went horribly awry. My apologies. PM me when you play, and we can work out if you wish to pursue it ICly, or if you wish the item back OOCly. Either is fine with me.

Whoever did it more or less followed the rules so far as I'm aware, so I don't want to make a big stink over it, but I still feel like I got the raw end of the deal. Death plus robbery is no way to go through life, son.

There was a character on EfU once who basically savaged one of my characters and left me for dead in a very dangerous place (and in fact, I later died), but they role-played the whole thing the whole way through and left me with at least few choices, albeit bad ones. My character may have had a bad night, but at least I got a night's worth of entertainment out of it.

I can't point to any rule that got violated. I'm just saying, if you're going to do evil things to me, give me something fun in return. The evil characters should be close to DMs in their villainy. Otherwise, it stinks for the player getting robbed.