Hired Thug

"We're here to teach you a lesson."

- Hired Thug Hired Thugs are hostile NPCs which can appear in any area. This is only supposed to occur after you have stolen goods from an NPC, repeatedly trespassed, assaulted someone, or murdered someone, but some NPCs (e.g. Belethor) seem to count knocking over items (like walking over a table or using a shout inside their shop) as theft.

This can happen even if you remained undetected during the theft or tresspassing, though whether this is a bug or intended is currently unknown.

The thugs seem to be exclusively melee classes, and can occasionally incur a bounty on themselves in attacking you, resulting in nearby guards assisting you. However, the reverse can also be true - guards may register your self-defence as assault, and act accordingly.

One will carry a Contract from whomever you offended, and will be signed by them. Any NPC can hire thugs- merchants, townsfolk, even children and town guards (who, in fact, will sign the contract with "Whiterun Guard"). There have been recorded cases of Forsworn Briarhearts that will send the Thugs after the player, if their Briar Hearts are pickpocketed. It should be noted that even if the person who took out the contract is dead, the thugs will still spawn. Also, if you pickpocket from a Hired Thug and s/he does not see you, they will send Hired Thugs after you.

If your sneak skill is high enough and you crouch before they are in range, the thugs won't see you, but will still walk slowly towards you. They will then stop (less than one meter away from you), say some generic "there's no one here after all" line. You can often sneak around them and backstab them one by one.

It is not known yet if random attacks from Dark Brotherhood Assassins are in any way related in cause to Hired Thugs.

Bugs

 * (Xbox 360)(PS3) Sometimes, the thugs will approach you, but only follow you around and not attack you. If you attack one of them, only the one you attack will fight back, and the other(s) will idly watch. If you kill the thug, the other(s) will look at the body and say they will find the killer.
 * (unconfirmed) (PC) It seems that if Hired Thugs are around when a dragon attacks, they become nonhostile, and simply follow you. Unknown if this is the cause for the Xbox 360 bug.
 * (PC) If a Male Hired Thug is attacked and killed with a destruction spell by a level 100 mage, they will die, but instead of staying male, they will turn female if one loots all their clothes. ​
 * ​(Xbox 360) This may be intended but if the thugs come after you in riverwood they are apparently unable to swim and will just stand there and get pushed by the current if you lead them into the water