dont know if this has been sugested but,
mabey make theaving act like a spell, ie theif has to be in toutch range of player and stay in toutch range for x amount of time.
this wold promote real theifery tactics like distraction.
also thiefs that pull off a job shold remain unkown,
but mabey make a tag for those the fail ie
Jon doe
>known theif<
the theif tag shold also have a timer ie if the theif goes X ic time he is forgotten as a thef
NPCs sholdent be exemt from theft eather but make a pentelty system ie
Joe Doe steals From {npc} item worth X tria if cougt the pentilty is X4 minnets no interaction and fine X+50. and if X exededs 1000 tria jail time
X -999 hours in jail. or something along those lines.