Harvest field near village

[free8082002]

If I harvest around a village, like 3 tiles away, still count as theft?

[PALU]

A field is owned and tended by somebody, so yes, taking from fields and pastures is thievery. However, if you wasn't discovered they won't know it was you (they ought to get suspicious if you're seen in the village shortly before a lot of their harvest goes missing, especially if it happens repeatedly, but I don't think they have the smarts for that).
Your conscience (should you have one) will know that you've stolen the crops even if the owners don't know it was you.

[DfDevadander]

I have been taking things from fields that are close to, but not inside of, villages for my entire UrW experience (almost 4 years) and was under the assumption that since I wasn't reprimanded by villagers, I wasn't stealing anyone's property. After having learned now that I've been a thief this whole time, I'm mortified I suppose I'll have to clear my conscience now by giving a bunch of dried meat to several villages where my apparent thievery took place

[PALU]

The only reason the villagers haven't reprimanded you is that you've been a SNEAKY thief
Also note that terrain types that can exist outside of village influence spheres aren't owned, so roads, ground, and groves are fair game, for instance (you can find  individual road tiles inside villages, and I wouldn't try to harvest from those, should there grow something on them).
I've been reprimanded for picking an unknown herb on a pasture, as I thought only fields were owned.

They also don't like you setting traps on their property...

[Salador]

What happens if you extend a field owned by a village? Will the new plots also be cultivated? Would collecting from those count as theft? Do villagers get angry in the first place for extending their field? I have almost no experience with agriculture, and none of my characters survived long enough/paid attention to the crops cycle near a particular village.

[PALU]

Given that the area is owned by the village I would think they'd consider all farm plots in it to be theirs. I don't think it's been tried, though, and I don't think it's a good idea to try it unless you're trying to provoke obscure bugs.

Stay away from the villages with your homestead and farm plots.

[Bedlam]

I often go and plant my own stuff on village fields - both using their plots and making my own next to theirs. In my experience the key is to not get caught, you can't let people see you picking stuff up. They don't seem to mind you extending their fields. So you harvest during the night, so those annoying maidens wandering around don't spot you in the act of pulling some turnips out. Another thing is, when harvest time comes, I'm pretty sure the villagers will harvest your plots for themselves along with theirs, but they can't harvest all of them at once and there will still be plenty of unharvested ones for a while after harvest season starts.

Pretty sure they make no distinction between their plots and the ones you made next to theirs, they're all considered to be theirs and you'll get a warning and then a good beating if spotted.

After harvesting just pile the goods in some safe spot nearby, recently there was a feature added where villagers get suspicious if they see you hauling a lot of veggies in the village that look like they're from their field... Later on when everyone's gone to sleep, I'm loading the pile onto my bull and heading home with a self-satified feel of a job well done.

The stuff they harvested "for me" will be in their shops and stores, which is useful to me because in late game you usually have plenty of stuff to trade with. Piles of turnips and wheat can be had for cheap, those piles would've taken a lot of time and back-breaking effort to harvest on a private field.