I playing ToEE with the Atari patches and the Circle of Eight patch. I have noticed that when you give looted items(crossbows,axes, etc.) to an NPC, and then go to a merchant, their looted items are are automatically transfered to the merchants inventory. Is there away to turn this "feature" off? I want NPC's to carry stuff around and only sell when I tell them to.

no, you can't. they do what they want. i try various light items that hopefully they won't want to see to fill up their inv slots so they don't weigh themselves down. "i'm carrying too much." then stop looting so much crap you stupid npc. can't even take it off them

Furthermore, you'll note that once an item is 'given' to an NPC, it's quite likely his/her's :D

This was annoying...and I'll admit I took out that thief fellow you meet because he was holding something I just had to have. I didn't feel good about it, but the +3 weapon consoled me easily hehe.

I do like the idea of them looking out for themselves though, taking what they consider 'fair' - but I wish there was an item arbitration of some kind before they go and fill their open slots with magic items that they can't use. 2 suggestions: 1) watch what the 'deal' they offer when you're considering hiring them. Many want their fair share as 1/8 or whatever of your party. Some want way more, and some don't want anything at all. The mage you meet early in the game only wants scrolls, for example. But man will he take them lol. 2)My other suggestion is to find relatively light items to take up the NPCs free slots periodically. This may not work in the version you're using, but in an older version they wouldn't sell their stuff effectively, so you'd only have to add 1-2 lightweight items. In that old version you could also take their money and they wouldn't care haha.