Is giving away items as bribes to other players restricted to table cards?

Question

Under "trading" in the Munchkin instructions it states that:

You may trade Items (but not other cards) with other players. You may only trade Items from the table - not from your hand.

but in the following paragraph it says:

You may also give Items away without trade, to bribe other players - "I'll give you my Flaming Armor if you won't help Bog fight that dragon!" You may show your hand to others. Like we could stop you.

In the "Asking For Help" section it says:

You can bribe someone to help. In fact, you'll probably have to. You may offer your helper any Item(s) you are currently carrying, or any number of the Treasure cards the monster has.

And at the beginning of the "Turn Phases" section it says:

At the start of your turn, you may play cards, switch items from "in use" to "carried" or vice versa, trade items with other players, and sell items for levels

This would mean that carried items are those in your hand and would cause bribes to function differently than standard trading. Does this mean that "bribes" can only be given from you hand?

Answer 1

It clearly says that you can't trade non-items or items in your hands, and there's nothing contradicting that.

Being able to reveal your hand does not imply you can trade cards in your hand. You might show your hand to reveal that you are able to affect a combat as a threat or to show you can meet a promise.

Being able to trade carried items does not mean you can trade items in your hand. Carried items are not in your hand. Quite the opposite, the items you carry are on the table. ("[Cards in play] are the cards on the table in front of you, showing your Race and Class (if any) and the Items you are carrying.") Not all of the items are you are carrying are in use because some are single use items, some aren't usable by your race or class, some items would occupy an item slot that's already occupied, etc.

Answer 2

Yes, I'd say it does have to be on the table:

The line you quoted on bribing states (emphasis added):

You may offer your helper any Item(s) you are currently carrying, or any number of the Treasure cards the monster has.

An item is carried if it's on the table (Card Management):

In Play: These are cards on the table in front of you, showing [...] the Items you are carrying.

Also, under Items:

An item card in your hand does not count until you play it; at that point it is "carried"

This means you'll need to either discard that big item you're carrying if you want to bribe someone with a big item in you hand, or show them your hand with the big item, give them your currently held big item and then trade it back for the big item you've just played...