(taken) stuff not stolen?

[Galatina91]

I got the game from gog.com.

A bag of rye grains I had in my cellar was flaggen as (taken), though I'm pretty sure I never stole anything from any settlement.
I'm also quite sure that it did not have the flag (taken) until after I took it out of the cellar to grind it.
The hand-made shingle basket I put the flour in got tagged (taken) as well, and also the pot I used to make porridge.
The oddest thing is, the (taken) flag stayed on the pot also after I finished eating the porridge.
The next time I visited a settlement, the sage came saying I had unpaid stuff. I asked him to remind me what I should pay for, and he said "a bag and two pots". I don't even own two pots, and the one I own I had regularly traded for from another village...
I said to just take back their stuff and he just said "Hmm" or something like that.

I got back to my cabin. I still have my pot but the flag (taken) is still there.
I have a pretty good reputation with the settlement and I worry that this situation might arise every time I visit...

update: this is getting ridiculous.
(how can I post an image?)
The hunter says "You've got pot, pot, pot, pot, pot and 2 pots. That's what you have to pay for."

[JP_Finn]

Is your camp, cellar, cabin really close to the village? As in within 1-3 wilderness tiles?

The villagers consider items/plants in their fields theirs. Any items in same range can be picked by the game engine as taken. If a villager sees you with that (taken) item, it will convert to (unpaid).

[Galatina91]

The village is close, but there is a lake in the middle. And they did never complain when I got rye and nettles from the fields.
Also the problem is happening in winter and I visited the village multiple times in the meantime.
Furthermore that doesn't really expalin why an empty pot whould be considered as "taken". Or why the villagers would ask me to return a total of 8 pots that I don't have.
Or why logging in later and today, I found a second and then a third pot next to my fireplace, flagged as "taken", next to my new pot that I traded with another village after "returning" the first one (that was never stolen in the first place btw, but the villagers reacted as if it was).