Okay, so I just got another weird glitch whilst playing Oblivion.
I was just wandering around when I decided to check out a nearby fortress. Right at the front door I found numerous corpses all piled up against one pillar. I didn't understand why, until I was attacked by a gore rat. A gore rat that was trapped inside the pillar. No matter what I did, I couldn't hurt the rat, but it could hurt me. Eventually I just decided to ignore it sinc eit couldn't chase me anyways. Then a wandering guardsmen came and was determined to show off his mighty rat slaying abilities. He spent about 2 minutes attempting to magically walk through the pillar, and during this the rat just chews away at his kneecaps. Unable to continue after being assaulted by the rat, his lifeless body collapses to the ground. A guardsmen was killed by a freaking rat in a 1v1 fight.
EDIT: Apparently it still counts as stealing if I ride the dead guardsmen's horse. Weak.