After more testing It seemed it was that specific mysterious merchant that was removing items but not the town and the goblin was probably because I was on a goblin inhabit tile not sure still not sure what the pre-requisite for success thieving is though I was able to rob the whole general store but i could steal 2 items from the armor and now he catches me each time (this is using saves I did watch what happens when caught in town once but was just resetting the shop via saves) -For the mystery merchant in the first tiles with the toys it would say 'your caught' then remove item which made me think I actually was still stealing it then when left shop not in inventory but also not in the shop anymore when revisit her(maybe it resets on a day cycle) saw items that were bought/stolen from the blacksmith did return at end of list next day