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In another forum, someone said the difference between
誰が盗んだのか、誰か知りませんか。
and
誰が盗んだか、誰か知りませんか。
is that the former has more emphasis on the verb 盗む. Another person said that that's not the case. And that they are the same, but he couldn't explain why.
I was wondering what the significance of the の is in the sentence 誰が盗んだのか、誰か知りませんか。? Is the の particle in that sentence also the same as the particle の for explanation?
I’m not a specialist, but let me show my fearless explanation. I think two sentences have different constructions but both have the same meaning.
When it comes to their constructions, I would put them this way.
「か」
誰が盗みましたか？（ask for information）
→誰が盗んだ（change the form in order to implant in an indirect question）
＋ （それを）誰か知っていますか
=「誰が盗んだか、誰か知っていますか？」
「のか」
誰が盗んだのですか？（ask for an explanation）...1)
→ 誰が盗んだのだ（change the form in order to implant in an indirect question）
＋ （それを）誰か知っていますか
＝「誰が盗んだのか、誰か知っていますか？」...2)
1) I agree with your guess that the 「の」 particle is for explanation.(at this stage)
You say that someone said that 「のか」sentence has more emphasis on the verb. I can understand his feeling to some extent. He might feel that way maybe because 「のだ」is used to express the speaker’s strong opinion or decision in some cases. But I would take「の」as a particle for explanation rather than for emphasis, in this case.
2) At this stage, I would take「のか」as a tool to implant the first direct question 「のですか」into the final stage. I think it's similar to the function of 'that' conjunction in English.
Anyway, I would use both of them with little awareness of the difference. Also, if someone asks me those questions, my answer will be the same. It might be better to think they’re the same and「の」exists only in order to express the construction.
EDIT: I added 1) 2) to my answer. I'm very sorry to confuse you. But I hope what I'm saying will still be your help.
Is the 「の」 particle in that sentence also the same as the particle の for explanation ?
Seems like that's the case. My lecturer in college explained that this usage of の transforms the predicate into a nominal clause, something similar to using "the fact that" to wrap your statement in English.
A: なぜケーキを食べませんでしたか? (Why did you not eat the cake?)
B1: もうご飯を食べました。 (I already ate rice.) -- weird
B2: もうご飯を食べたのです。 ([Due to] the fact that I already ate rice.)
As you can see from my example above, の especially with です has the same connotation of reason as から, that's why ので can be used (sometimes?) to replace から:
もうご飯を食べたからケーキは食べませんでした。 (Because I already ate rice, I didn't eat the cake.)
もうご飯を食べたのでケーキは食べませんでした。 ([Due to] the fact that I already ate rice, I didn't eat the cake.)
So, your sentence 誰が盗んだのか、誰か知りませんか translates to "Does anyone know about the fact that somebody stole [something]?", which is different from 誰が盗んだか、誰か知りませんか -- "Does anyone know who stole [something]?". In the latter, the asker is sure that somebody has stolen something, but in the former, the asker is not sure so he's asking for confirmation first. By asking it this way, the asker is being tactful by showing that he's trying to confirm if the theft did happen or not first instead of asking directly who did it. EDIT: seems like my translation of the sentences in the question is a bit off, so I'll have to rethink and come up with a revision later. Sorry about that; I'm also learning here >_<
"だか" sounds very harsh. I've already discussed it a bit in situations like 行くかい.
I just believe that inserting の here allows to soften the sound without changing the meaning.
