Faithful Bowl of the Mendicant
Description: A crudely-made wooden bowl, wide and shallow, much-stained and scarred by long usage. Magical senses will detect a modest aura of divine power around the bowl, and strong identification magic may result in hearing a brief prayer (see below).
Powers: The bowl itself is nearly indestructible by any mortal agency. Anything placed within the bowl cannot be removed by any means. The bowl offers no protection to its contents beyond that, so wax could be melted, paper burned, etc. Objects that won't fit within the roughly 1' diameter cylinder of space above the bowl won't trigger the magic, although it will retain absurdly tall mounds of small items like rice grains or coins, keeping them from spilling. Living creatures small enough to fit within the bowl may leave of their own free will but can't be removed by other means.
The bowl has a "command word" in the form of a short prayer of thanks to whatever god/saint/spirit of charity suits your campaign. On doing so (taking about ten seconds) the speaker (and only the speaker) may remove any or all of the bowls contents for the next hour or so. Each bowl has its own prayer, which can be learned either from a previous owner or through the same mechanics your game system uses to discover more conventional command words or phrases.
Each morning at dawn the bowl (and any contents) will miraculously appear at the feet of whoever last used the "command word" prayer, even crossing planar borders or bypassing magical wards to do so.
Some owners have claimed that food eaten from the bowl tastes better than it should, especially when shared amongst friends, but this effect may be wholly psychological.
Possible Origins: Many scholars believe Faithful Bowls are the creation of one or more of the many divine or spiritual entities associated with the virtue of charity, and are often carried by one of their avatars then left behind to the deserving poor after the manifestation ends. Others have pointed out the many potential uses of these items for theft and chicanery and insist a trickster god is responsible for them. The close association of beggars' and thieves' guilds makes it quite possible that both beliefs are correct.
Complications: While rare, Faithful Bowls do feature in enough folk tales that many storytellers or sages have at least a vague idea of their abilities. Unfortunately, so do many ne'er-do-wells, and the same traits that make the bowl useful to an honest beggar or busker can serve more nefarious purposes, including theft, smuggling, and various confidence games. It's also an odd sort of thing for a wealthy adventurer to be lugging around to the mansion of a noble patron, or a royal ball, or even to their favorite fence, so it may attract unwanted attention and comment.
Design Commentary: This post was inspired by the Fakir's Bed, posted over on Telecanter's Receding Rules. As usual, he manages to be concise where I'm regrettably wordy. :)
http://recedingrules.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-fakirs-bed.html
I think what sticks out to me is the idea of magic items that will seem out of place on characters, like too poor or too rich for their surroundings. I'll ruminate on items that might make people stand out when they carry or use them.
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