In the Garry's Mod Stranded gamemode, players would sometimes steal eachothers crops, and the DarkRP/Cider gamemodes largely revolved around breaking into players "bases" to steal their money printers. The DayZ mod often focused on looting items, and as players often had the best loot (sometimes stashed in tents), players commonly killed eachother to steal their items, and looted tents when they found them. Some servers had rules upholding a sense of civility, but when Rust came along, theft was so common that it wasn't eventful - if you built a base, it was practically guaranteed to get raided at some point, as if there was a constant state of war, where items weren't stolen from victims, but simply captured from opponents. This article instead focuses on theft between teammates in Rust.

Probably the most common type of "theft" is when a team member kills an opponent, in which case the dead opponent's loot may be said to belong to the team member that killed him, but another team member takes the loot. This unwritten rule among large groups may be overlooked during battle, as the loot should be taken quickly (by the nearest team member) so that it can be used against the enemy (atleast so that it doesn't fall back into enemy hands). Unfortunately, little to no effort seems to get put into getting loot to the hands of the member it should "belong" to after battles.

It's often said that the kit of a dead team member should be left for that member to reclaim it. In the case where it's at risk of being lost, the closest teammate could temporarily take it (or take the most valuable/useful items like a gun and ammunition) with the intention of safely giving it back to the fallen member, but might (understandably) use the items if in combat.

If a team member teamkills another member, and loots the body without giving the stuff back, then this could be particularly corrosive to teamwork, because why would a team member want to help a teammate that stole their stuff? The items stolen might not always have value, but the fact that they were stolen is the important factor.

The situation of a teamkilled player's loot being taken by a player other than the teamkiller or the victim is an awkward one, where the teamkiller arguably has the responsibility to ensure that the victim has a chance to retrieve their items. In this case, another teammate might have accidentally looted the victim because they believed that they dead player was an opponent (it may be helpful to check the name of the player one is looting).

A teammate looting too many items during a raid (sometimes known as being a Loot Goblin) may be considered as an act of theft, especially if they leave the fighting to their teammates while they loot.

There have been cases where, following a successful raid, some raid members don't get any share of the loot, even if they had supplied their own kit. If this happens, then the victims of this bounty theft might not be interested in joining further raids if they feel that their teammates don't appreciate their support (and might run out of raiding supplies anyway if they weren't reimbursed). Bounty could be shared equally, even if there was little taken, and even if the best of it went to the suppliers of the boom.

Theft of items or resources from a community base is difficult to track, as the entire group might have access to the community base. Members sleeping in a community base might wake to find their inventory missing, likely burglarised by a teammate (or perhaps a traitor).

If a team member mistakenly raids a teammate, and loots the base, then it would be theft if they didn't give the items back. The stolen items might include such things as resources, furniture, and paintings. It might also be suggested that the raider has a responsibility not to let any of the base items or furniture be taken by other players, which can stopped by patching the base up and sending the new codelock code in a message to the original owner.

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