Pickpocket

''The stealthy art of picking an unsuspecting target's pockets. A skilled pickpocket is less likely to be caught and is more likely to find valuables.'' ""I find your hand in my pocket, I'm going to cut it off.""

- Guard

Pickpocket is a skill in and is one of the six skills that falls under The Thief play-style. The intent of the pickpocket skill is to provide greater role play opportunities and much more realistic thievery. The player is free to peruse their target's inventory, without breaking the law. Unsuccessfully removing an object will raise the Dragonborn's bounty.

There are many opportunities for lucrative pickpocketing to offset the significant costs of investing perks in the skill. Many NPCs will carry large amounts of gold and/or valuable jewelry that is frequently enchanted. Gold from training or bribes will also be in the NPCs inventory which can then be stolen with the pickpocket skill.

There is an unknown formula for maximum gold value that can be pickpocketed based on the level of the character's pickpocket skill and which perks they have. This can result in situations where even a small change in gold value can result in huge swings in percentage chance of success.
 * Governing Guardian Stone: The Thief

Perks
The following are the perks that become available to select as the skill is leveled up

Books
The following books increase this skill:
 * Thief
 * Aevar Stone-Singer
 * Guide to Better Thieving
 * Beggar
 * Purloined Shadows

Trainers

 * Ahkari (Adept): Khajiit Caravans
 * Silda the Unseen (Expert): Windhelm
 * Vipir the Fleet (Master): Thieves Guild in Riften

Leveling Techniques

 * Simple and effective method is to quicksave before each attempted pickpocket. If successful, save again, if unsuccessful, re-load. Inns and marketplaces are good places for pickpocketing as there are many NPCs there and you can/should pickpocket them one by one and then move to the next marketplace/Inn.
 * An easy and effective way to level your pickpocket skill is to go to the Riften jail.There is an NPC named Sibbi Black-Briar in a cell. Through the bars you may pickpocket him freely. Even if he catches you, he will allow you to continue and raise no bounty or attract any attention. After pickpocketing him of his belongings you can place the stuff back on him and repeat the process indefinitely. Additional Note: Tested in Patch 1.4, no longer working.


 * Use Calm spells on normally hostile enemies such as Bandits. As long as Calm is still affecting the enemy, you can pickpocket them, and even if you're caught, they won't attack you.
 * If you don't mind increasing your lifetime bounty, complete the city influence quests and pickpocket anyone you feel like with impunity. If you get caught, just tell the guard that "you're with the thieves guild" and you'll be able to pickpocket again. This tactic results in a 12 gold fine each time you get caught but you can increase your skill very quickly using the Thief Stone.


 * As a Guild Master in Thieves Guild, you could also pickpocket any of the member freely. When you get caught, they would say "You could just ask", but then you will unable to pickpocket from them again and you will get the message "xxx had already caught you".

Removing 'Stolen' Tag
To remove the 'stolen' tag from items: get a follower, drop the stolen items and get them to pick the items up. This will usually remove the tag but if not, the process can be repeated. You can also store items in a container (chest or sack) in a home you own, then order your follower to 'take all' items from the container.

Another, more expensive way is to sell the item to a Fence and then buy it back at a much higher price. Speech perks can be used to reduce the cost of buying back the item. Additionally, you can use the Fence perk from the Speech skill to use any merchant whom you have Bartered with as a Fence. (Patch 1.4 on PS3 disables this method as well as using a follower)

Trivia

 * The chance to successfully pickpocket any item (including gold) is capped at 90%.
 * The value and weight of an item determine the difficulty of pickpocketing the item.
 * It is not necessary to be completely 'hidden' to successfully pickpocket, though it does raise the chance to steal items significantly. It is, however, necessary when pickpocketing equipped items or weapons.
 * After unsuccessfully attempting to pickpocket an NPC, the NPC cannot be pickepocketed again for 2 days. The NPC will not reset if the player waits two days in the same room.
 * With the Poisoned perk, placing a paralyzing poison on a target will allow you to steal any item.
 * If you can successfully pickpocket a Forsworn Briarheart, and steal the Briar Heart from his inventory, you will kill him.
 * It is possible to pickpocket items with 0% chance to steal. However, it is required that you have the Poisoned Perk. Simply get any type of paralysis poison, place it in the target's inventory and while he is down pickpocket the desired item. (Confirmed on PS3)

Bugs

 * Enchantments that boost pickpocketing chances actually reduce your success rate when your base chance is small. (Such enchantments grow less effective as the value of the item being pickpocketed increases; for the most difficult items, these bonuses fall below 0%, giving you a negative "bonus").
 * If target is standing up from paralysis, you can pickpocket everything from them without being noticed. However, this will not increase your pickpocket level.