Pelape didn't notice the first time, so what if the kid tries to steal her wax tablet this time? That looks expensive.

The wax tablet doesn't move. As soon as the kid brushes up against her, neither does he. "Kid, what do you think you're doing?"

Straining against whatever is holding him here is what he's doing.

"Let go!"

"Laithan, I think this kid was trying to swipe my tablet and I might recognize him from a few minutes ago, I'm guessing pickpocket. What's standard for those?"

"I don't recognize him, so he's from out of town. You want to identity who you're with, or do we have to keep you somewhere till they come get you?"

The kid glares but will eventually divulge that he came with the donkey merchant.

"Do we return him to the donkey merchant?"

"Yeah, and fine them a relatively small amount since this a first offense."

"At least as far as we know." Back to the donkey merchant with a kid stuck to her arm.

The donkey merchant is glad they found his kid, but thinks it's ridiculous he should have to pay a fine because people couldn't keep an eye on their stuff on their own.

Says the guy who let his donkeys roam around.

Laithan is going to have to insist.

The merchant is going to have to yell at the nosy guy who thinks he can just take people's stuff because he doesn't like the look of their kid!

Several of the nearby stall owners and two customers suddenly have very obvious weapons visible, ranging from pistols to knives. Is the guy sure he wants to insist?

... no, he's not. Here's Laithan's money now, can he get back to business. 

So long as the kid isn't caught again, yeah.

Pelape releases the kid to his ?father?.

"So uh, that's how you deal with that category of situation."

"Do you have the various shopkeepers on retainer as emergency security backup?"

"No, they just know who I am - oh also, the fee is yours to keep," he says, handing it over.

"For... apprehending him?"

"And because he attempted to steal from you - normally it would be split between the people who apprehended the person and the people he stole from."

"Would it be very locally odd to tip the people who made it clear that he had to hand over his fine?"

"Mildly but not very?"

She will eyeball an easily separable amount and hand bits out to everybody who convincingly looked like they stood ready to be an impromptu militia.

They bemusedly accept the money.