After I murdered/robbed people, how do I get rid of the bounty?

I thought it would be nice to steal some useful stuff from people. However, the whole town got angry for me doing so. Seems someone did spot me doing so, I survived the first people by walking back out of the town and had to murder three man where I used up all my potions. When entering the town again I entered a building but the immediate moment I enter the building an angry person also enters right behind me and is much stronger than me. I don't seem welcome in this town anymore...

Here are my questions:

  • What should I do to survive from him and get rid of the bounty?

  • Can I run out of the town for a long distance so I lose aggro or bounty? Or will he keep following?


Solution 1:

Crime is generally localized to the hold you're in: if you are kill-on-sight in one hold, running to the next hold over should cause the guards to drop pursuit without new guards joining the chase.

However, in general, you should always be able to pay the guards, even if they decide to attack you. As soon as they do, sheathe your weapons/spells/shields and hope they trigger the dialogue to allow you to go to jail or pay off your bounty.

If they don't, there are a few things you can try to do:

  • As Bri and RoughNeckRage mention, sometimes all you need is time. Wait out a few days and see if the situation hasn't died down by then. The guards will still want you to make reparations, though.

  • An anonymous user mentions that you can try sneaking up to a guard from behind and trigger the dialogue screen to pay off your bounty.

  • Stof mentions another possible thing, the bounty collector. The UESP suggests it's not guaranteed, but if he does visit you, you can pay off your bounty for a 20% premium (and even keep your stolen items!).

Solution 2:

I accidentally killed a guard while slaying a dragon and then after the dragon was dead the gaurds turned on me well I killed them but I didn't want to have to load my last save and not have the dragon soul or all the items I aquired from the dragon, troll, and dead gaurds so what I did when coast was clear was wait 24 hours and then slept for 12 hours and then fast travelled back into to town a gaurd approached me and said "you look familiar" and it gave me the opition to say no i don't well then he said I could go to jail pay fee or fight him so I paid my 40 gold bounty and he searched me for stolen items. Well that was the best way to do it I think. So try that and I hope it helps but waiting is the big thing!

Solution 3:

Eat glowing mushrooms then go to whiterun, talk to Olfrid, give him a bottle of mead and he pays off the guards in Riverwood.

Solution 4:

Supposedly (I never got a bounty THAT high), if you get a really high bounty to the point guards kill you first and talk later, you can still pay it back. Avoid the town and just continue playing in the rest of the world. An NPC bounty hunter will come after you and he'll actually talk first, giving you the option to pay the bounty and it'll clear it up.