Article: Committing a crime, no matter how small, in front of at least one person or domestic animal will add a bounty price to your head. If a guard in the hold in which you committed the crime(s) catches you, they will attempt to detain you, at which point you'll be prompted to give in, attempt to talk your way out of it, or resist arrest. Resisting arrest is inadvisable due to the sheer volume of guards which will attack you, leading to a high death count (and, by extension, a higher bounty). If you've only just incurred a bounty, you may be able to kill any witnesses (including animals, bandits, and town folk) who witnessed the crime.  If you've left the Hold in which you obtained the bounty, you can't kill the witnesses to prevent the bounty. Beware of causing too much of a scene. If you kill a human witness in front of another person, you can potentially create a snowball effect where your bounty increases as you rack up a body count. If you committed a crime in full view of a guard, they may start attacking you. You can prompt them to stop attacking by putting away your weapon. This won't always work. You may need to exit the city and then re-enter it at a later time if putting away your weapon doesn't deter the guards' attacks. You can see a list of Holds—as well as each Hold's bounty—in the menu:   Consoles — Press Start (Xbox) or Options (PlayStation), scroll over to the GENERAL STATS tab, scroll down to the CRIME section, and review your Holds' bounties.  PC — Open the menu, scroll over to the GENERAL STATS tab, scroll down to the CRIME section, and review your Holds' bounties. To the right of each Hold name, you'll see a number; that number refers to the number of gold your bounty is worth. If you see a 0 here, you don't have a bounty in your selected Hold.
What is a summary of what this article is about?
Understand what contributes to a bounty. Kill any witnesses if possible. Stop the guard response to a crime you just committed. Check the Hold in which you have a bounty. Check your bounty's amount.