Is there a way to stop un-active sims from collecting things?

I'm sorry, I don't have an answer for you, but I'm very curious to see what the replies will be because this never happened to me. When I make a townie active, the only thing I ever find in their inventory is a camera, an umbrella and a high school diploma, an sometimes a car or bicycle. I wonder if a mod is causing this to happen in your game, or if a mod is preventing this from happening in my game.