Khajiit are a cat-like race from Bethesda's Elder Scrolls games whose habit of speaking in third person and their line 'Khajiit has wares, if you have coin' became a fandom catchphrase meme.

Where did Khajiit come from?

The race first appeared in The Elder Scrolls: Arena in 1994, but the meme took off after Skyrim launched in 2011 and players heard the merchant pitch on a loop.

What does Khajiit mean?

In the games, 'Khajiit' is both the race name and how members of the race refer to themselves, since they often skip 'I' and speak in third person.

How do you use Khajiit?

People commonly quote the merchant line verbatim, caption cat photos with it, or reply to unrelated forum posts in third-person Khajiit voice.

Is Khajiit still popular?

The catchphrase became a lasting Elder Scrolls fandom joke, with r/Khajiits gathering Khajiit fans and roleplayers, and Skooma and M'aiq the Liar references still floating around the same circles.

Khajiit

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Published September 4, 2026

Khajiit / Khajiit Has Wares is a catchphrase meme rooted in Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series, where the cat-like Khajiit race speaks in third person and repeatedly offers their wares to passing players. After Skyrim launched in 2011, the line 'Khajiit has wares, if you have coin' became fandom shorthand, spawning image macros, roleplay threads, and cat photo edits across Reddit and GameFAQs.

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Overview

The meme runs on the Khajiit's speech quirk of referring to themselves in the third person or by their race name, paired with the merchant caravan pitch players hear on a loop in Skyrim1. Common formats include image macros of Khajiit NPC screenshots captioned with the line, real cats posed like traveling merchants with the same caption, and shitpost forum threads where the entire post is a Khajiit quote2. A related variant, 'Khajiit stole nothing,' plays on the in-game racial stereotype that other Elder Scrolls races hold against them, and it turns up tens of thousands of Google results on its own3.

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Origin & Background

Platform

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (video game) / Reddit and GameFAQs (viral spread)

Creator

Bethesda Softworks

Date

2011

The Khajiit debuted as one of ten playable races in Arena (1994), the first Elder Scrolls entry, though the sub-species shown there looked barely feline compared to later games1. As Bethesda refined the race across Morrowind, Oblivion, and especially Skyrim in 2011, the Khajiit developed their signature quirks: talking in third person, running skooma-fueled merchant caravans, and greeting the Dragonborn with the trademark pitch 'Khajiit has wares, if you have coin'3. Series lore documents many Khajiit subspecies, though the bipedal cat-people are the widespread variety players actually meet in game1.

How It Spread

After Skyrim shipped, the catchphrase spread through the Elder Scrolls fandom, with r/Khajiits on Reddit hosting roleplayers who post entirely in character as third-person merchants and travelers5. GameFAQs threads about anything Elder Scrolls tend to fill with replies that are just Khajiit lines quoted verbatim2. Photos of housecats staged behind piles of trinkets, captioned with the merchant pitch, spread widely on image boards and pet subreddits3. Adjacent lore jokes latched on too, including Skooma memes about the psychedelic Khajiit drug4 and quotes from M'aiq the Liar, a recurring Khajiit NPC who breaks the fourth wall6.

How to Use This Meme

The typical format is to quote the merchant pitch verbatim, either over a screenshot of a Khajiit NPC or a real cat photo staged with 'wares.' A common convention is to write the caption in third person, referring to yourself as 'this one' or 'Khajiit,' and to offer or refuse something based on whether the other party 'has coin.' The 'Khajiit stole nothing' variant often includes the speaker denying an obvious theft.