This article teaches you how to reset the bounty in castles in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. There are three main ways to eliminate bounties: paying bounties, serving sentences in prison, and using lordship to eliminate them. You can also try to kill all witnesses, or if you are a member of the Thieves Guild, you can also eliminate the bounty by bribing.
Method 1 Prepare to eliminate the bounty
Image upload failed
retry
1 Understand what caused the bounty. No matter how small the crime, if at least one person or domestic animal is committed, the reward for you will be raised. If the guards of the castle where you committed the crime caught you, they will try to detain you, in which case you can choose to be forced to surrender, try to get out of custody through conversation, or refuse to be arrested.
Resisting arrest is unwise, as there will be a large number of guards attacking you, resulting in many being killed (and thus a higher bounty).
edit
Add a picture annotation of up to 140 words (optional)
2 If possible, kill all witnesses. If a bounty has just been launched against you, you can kill any witnesses (including animals, robbers, and townspeople).
If you leave the bounty's castle, you can't stop the bounty by killing witnesses.
Be careful not to make things bigger. If you kill a witness in front of another person, it may cause a snowball effect, and the reward for you will increase as the number of deaths increases.
Edit toggles to full width
Add a picture annotation of up to 140 words (optional)
3 Stop the guards from reacting to the crime you just committed. If you commit a crime in front of the guards, they may start attacking you. You can put away your weapons and ask them to stop attacking.
This approach doesn't always work. If putting away your weapons doesn't stop the guards from attacking, you may need to leave the city and re-enter later.
edit
Add a picture annotation of up to 140 words (optional)
4 Check out the castles that have given you a bounty. You can see a list of castles in the menu, as well as a bounty for each castle:
Console—Press Xbox or PlayStation, scroll to the Basic Stats tab, scroll to the Crime section, and see your bounties in each castle.
PC—Open the menu, scroll to the Basic Statistics tab, scroll to the Crime section, and see your bounties in each castle.
edit
Add a picture annotation of up to 140 words (optional)
5 View the bounty amount. To the right of each castle, you will see a number; this number indicates the amount of the bounty for you.
If you see 0, it means that the castle has not issued a bounty to you.
Method 2 Pay the bounty
edit
Add a picture annotation of up to 140 words (optional)
1 Make sure you have enough coins to pay the bounty. If you plan to pay the bounty, make sure you have at least the appropriate amount of gold in your inventory.
If you plan to bribe the guards with the Rogue Guild skill, you'll have to have extra coins.
edit
Add a picture annotation of up to 140 words (optional)
2 Hide the stolen items. When you pay the bounty, everything you steal is confiscated. In order to avoid stealing them again, keep these things in the cabinet at home.
The name of the stolen item is marked in red, preceded by the word "theft" for easy identification.
edit
Add a picture annotation of up to 140 words (optional)
3 Enter the castle. Head to the city that gave you a bounty.
Image upload failed
retry
4 Find a guard and talk to him. Once inside the city, approach a guard (or wait for the guard to come to the door).
In some cases, just entering the City Watch will come to you.
Image upload failed
retry
5 Indicates that you want to pay the bounty. In the dialog window select You caught me. I will pay the bounty in full.
If you are a member of the Thieves Guild and you have performed at least one guild mission in the bounty-issuing castle, you can choose the bribe option. The money spent this way will be more expensive than your bounty, but anything you steal won't be confiscated.
edit
Add a picture annotation of up to 140 words (optional)
6 Have the guards search. If your bounty exceeds 10 coins, you will be thrown into a local jail and any stolen goods that are too late to hide will be confiscated by the guards. The bounty will also be deducted from your existing coins.
If the guards are bribed, anything stolen will not be confiscated.
Method 3 Go to jail
Image upload failed
retry
1 Know when to go to jail. If you don't want to eliminate the bounty by paying, you can also choose to go to jail. Just staying in jail will also slow down your skill leveling.
edit
Add a picture annotation of up to 140 words (optional)
2 Hide the stolen items. When you pay the bounty, everything you stole will be confiscated. In order to avoid stealing them again, keep these things in the cabinet at home.
The name of the stolen item is preceded by the word "stolen" for easy identification.
edit
Add a picture annotation of up to 140 words (optional)
3 Enter the castle. Head to the city that gave you a bounty.
edit
Add a picture annotation of up to 140 words (optional)
4 Find a guard and talk to him. Once inside the city, approach a guard (or wait for the guard to come to the door).
In some cases, just entering the City Watch will come to you.
edit
Add a picture annotation of up to 140 words (optional)
5 Indicates that you want to go to jail. When prompted, select I surrender. Arrest me and go to jail.
Prison will not deduct a bounty from your gold balance, but it will slow down your skill leveling.
Image upload failed
retry
6 Serving a sentence or escaping from prison. While serving your sentence, you can sleep on a bed in your cell, get close to it and press the prompt button. When your character wakes up, it means that the sentence is coming to an end.
If you want to jailbreak, you have to get away with it unlocked. The stolen items will be placed in an "evidence box" somewhere in the prison; open the lock of this box and retrieve the contents.
When the character wakes up, you'll be taken to the front of the prison, return all your belongings (except stolen), clear the bounty, and release you.
A successful jailbreak means you won't lose any skill progression.
Method 4 Indicate the identity of the lord
Edit toggle to center
Add a picture annotation of up to 140 words (optional)
1 Make sure you are the "lord" of the castle that issued the bounty. If you haven't completed the Castle's Lord quest line, you're not a Lord yet, and that won't work.
If you are a "lord", the people of this castle will call you "lord".
Image upload failed
retry
2 Make sure you can use the Lord as an excuse. You can get one exoneration if you meet the following conditions:
The bounty amount must be less than 3000 coins.
The "Lord" excuse has not been used before.
Image upload failed
retry
3 Enter the castle. Head to the main city of the castle, where you are bounty-bounty.
Edit toggle to center
Add a picture annotation of up to 140 words (optional)
4 Wait for the guards to come to you. There should be guards coming to you right away, but you can also approach a patrol guard to speed up the process.
Edit toggle to center
Add a picture annotation of up to 140 words (optional)
5 Select "Lord" to reply. When the guard accuses you of having a bounty, select I am the Lord in the dialog box. I ask you to let me go right away.
Image upload failed
retry
6 Remember that this trick can only be used once. If you are later caught in the same castle for having a bounty, the lord's excuse can no longer be used when you meet the guards.
Tips
If you go to jail, your weapons and armor will be placed in the cupboard of the guard room; however, you can still use the spells you have learned.
If you're trapped in a prison and don't have weapons, binding weapons (e.g., Restraint Sword, Restraint Axe, and Restraint Bow) are useful contingency methods.
If you are a member of the Thieves Guild, you can keep the Skeleton Key when you are searched by the guards when you enter the prison. This will make it easier to escape.
warn
Jailbreaking will make the bounty on you raised.
Serving a sentence will cause your character to lose the skill level increase. The longer the sentence, the more skills are affected. Any sentence of more than a week will cause your character to lose any skill improvement.