Fact 1: Trunks was not a thief. He picked up a pickaxe he had dropped in Nople territory. Nobody asked Sodom for the scent to be tracked or for stolen items to be returned.
(Fun Fact: Trunks had learned the Theft skill just 5 min earlier)
Fact 2: A random stranger came to nople, saw a scent, killed the perp and put down a runestone, taking all of Trunks' belongings (pickaxe, sacks, scythe and some other tools that aren't expensive, just tiresome to get).
Fact 3: This jackass wants to make people think he did something for the greater good. Truth is, he could've raided a noob village and it wouldn't have been more criminal than this.
Screenshot of Trunks' runestone and temporary resting place:

TL;DR
Peeps, don't track scents without confirmation that something was actually stolen. It's NOT cool, you're NOT doing anyone a favor, you belong to the same criminal scum that you're pretending to punish.
P.S. I just realized my quickbar is a complete mess, lol.