Very strange bug, Combat Gloves, easily fixed

[Cornflower]

OK, this is more of a general information, rather than a bug that can, or needs to, be squished.

It's happened to two of my characters now. The Combat Gloves, who is supposedly giving lots of damage reductions, are not always working.

Case 1:
I was trying to level my Paladin and got nowhere, couldn't kill an undead any way, got killed all the time. After a while discussing this with someone I know has a good grasp of builds, I concluded that something other than my character build was to blame. I started testing each piece of gear I had and suddenly the gloves worked again. I had no problem completing the quest.
Case 2:
I was running around Umgah getting my ass kicked, although a friend, with an identical build, was doing fine. He said: I can't believe how they hit you so hard. We started comparing notes, checking logs, experimenting. Finally, as I was testing different pieces of gear, I discovered that I didn't recieve my damage reduction from the damn gloves. Again. I equipped and unequipped a couple of times and suddenly they worked again.

So, if someone else encounters this strange bug, at least you know how I fixed it.

I have no clue as to why they won't work all the time, but a guess is that it has to do with levelling up several times without equpping/unequipping them. I always just get to the proper level, equip the gloves and forget all about them.