Taking Care of Business

It is the second quest pertaining to the Thieves Guild, acquired from Brynjolf.

Objectives

 * Locate Brynjolf at the Ragged Flagon
 * Collect Keerava's Debt
 * Collect Bersi Honey-Hand's Debt
 * Collect Haelga's Debt
 * Return to Brynjolf

Locate the Ragged Flagon and speak with Brynjolf
2. He will instruct you to collect debts from three business owners in town. Exit the Ragged Flagon by the front door, then go through the second archway on the right wall. Pull the lever to drop the draw bridge across the gap where you jumped down before. Follow the path you entered by to exit the Ratways.
 * Find the door to the Ratways, located on the lower levels of Riften.
 * In the Ratways, you'll encounter a couple aggressive bandits named, Drahff and Hewnon Black-Skeever, who will need to be aggressively dealt with.
 * Soon after you'll have to drop down to the lower level and destroy the Skeever as well.
 * Now you'll have to either pick the lock (Expert) on the door to the left or take the path to the right.
 * Shortly, you'll locate the entrance to the Ragged Flagon and find Brynjolf at the bar.

There are a few different ways to get the money.

Keerava's debt (in The Bee and Barb)

 * 1) Speak first to Talen-Jei, a male Argonian. Talen-Jei is likely just inside the door, or upstairs sleeping in his room. He's her love interest. Choose the dialog option about talking some sense into Keerava. Then speak with Keerava about giving Brynjolf to convince her to pay you.
 * 2) Alternatively, you can choose to brawl with Keerava. Win the fight and she'll pay you. Accidentally hitting another patron during the fight will give you a bounty, and cause Keerava and everybody else to try to kill you.
 * 3) You can kill Keerava and loot the 100 gold, though Brynjolf will not be happy about this.

Bersi Honey-Hand 's debt (in The Pawned Prawn)

 * 1) Pull out your weapon and "attack" the urn in front of him. He'll make some comments; continue until it breaks. Then speak with him and he'll pay.
 * 2) Additionally, you can challenge him to a brawl. Beat him into submission and he will pay.
 * 3) You can kill him and loot the 100 gold, but Brynjolf will not be happy about this.

Haelga's debt (in Haelga's Bunkhouse)

 * 1) Around the corner from her counter is the statue. Be sure to sneak first so you don't get a bounty. Steal the statue. Then speak with her to receive the debt payment.
 * 2) If you already collected the other debts, she will give you the money without the statue. This is true for all three debts, the last one collected does not need the optional objective completed.
 * 3) Brawl with her. She'll give you the money if you win.
 * 4) You can kill Haelga and loot the 100 gold, though Brynjolf will not be happy about this.

Once the debts have been collected, r eturn to in the The Ragged Flagon. He will invite you to walk with him. You'll meet an NPC named Mercer Frey who gives the follow up quest Loud and Clear and welcomes you to the guild.

Rewards
After completing the quest and accepting the follow up, "Loud and Clear ", a few perks are gained:
 * Membership into the guild.
 * Speak with Tonilia in the Ragged Flagon to receive the Thieves Guild Outfit. Do not sell this armor. See the article for details.
 * Tonilia becomes available as a Fence.

Bugs
-During this quest, it is possible that after failing to collect Kareeva's debt during the speech options, she will run off and disappear. So far, there is one fix: reloading from an autosave. If you have this problem but forgot about reloading the autosave and walked off, there is no known fix. You will be able to collect the other debts and hand them in, but Kareeva will be gone forever. Although not proven, she may be able to reappear after doing some quests relevant to her or waiting for a few days. I suggest checking into the Bee and Barb in Riften anytime you are near it just to check if she has spawned again. If you do encounter this bug, you will not be able to move on any further into the Thieves' Guild questline.

-Though the cause is unknown, there is a break in this quest line where Brynjolf keeps standing in the stand like he is still giving an announcement to the traders from the previous quest, unwilling to go anywhere else.
 * This can be resolved by simply going to the Ragged Flagon and then bringing up the console with the tilde key and typing "player.placeatme 1b07d". This will summon him in front of you and allow the quest to progress.
 * Alternately, just punch him while unarmed and immediately lower your fists. This can sometimes jolt him out of his paralysis and walk towards the secret entrance. You may also have to open the secret entrance to the Cistern. Simply go through the fake storage closet and open the hatch to Riften, then pull the lever. You may also have to wait for him to enter the cistern. Simply use 'T' to wait for an hour, and he should go inside, and the quest will continue normally.
 * Also, if you hit him and cause a fight, have him chase you to the Ratways Door, then beat him down and unequip your weapon and heal him using "Healing Hands". (When healed he shouldn't attack you further.) To get him through the door you need to initiate conversion and then exit before he finished talking and enter the Ratways then repeat to get him to follow you to the Ragged Flagon.
 * The alternative way to do this is to sprint into Brynjolf and make him step back and continue to do so until he is at the door to the ratway, then open the door and as you do so immediately talk to brynjolf which will make him appear in the ratway. Then push him a bit more further and save. punch him once while you are unarmed and proceed to run to the ragged flaggon and enter the bar (Make sure he is close by at all times.) then knock him down with unrelenting force (If that doesnt work use fists rember FISTS are what do it don't use swords, to beat him down, then quickly lower your fists and quickly talk to him) same applies to using unrelenting force but without the punching.
 * Solved by punching Brynjolf out of sight from a guard, and then attacking a townsmember where a guard CAN see you. After accepting the fine and being transported to the keep, Brynjolf was back to normal. (Xbox 360)
 * Solved by clearing the system cache (Xbox 360).
 * When you are walking with Brynjolf at the end of the quest, sometimes the Cistern door is locked when you try to use it. Reloading seems to fix this. (Xbox 360)
 * If you steal the Statue from Haelga, but talk to her last so you can extort the coins from her without her taking the statue, she will take the statue anyway. (PS3)
 * The Quest, Rescue Mission previously prevented this quest from being completed. As of Skyrim Patch 1.5, this problem is resolved.
 * While collecting Keerava's debt, it is possible to choose an option to say that it doesn't matter for the dragonborn to collect the debt. Once you exit and talk to her again, the dialog bar won't pop out, thus making it impossible for you to continue any further.