in eq, i remember, being a theif was not rewarding, well it really sucked, i thevery should be allowed though in planeshift, but not on npcs, but on players themselves.
but there should be a catch.
first of all if a theif is about to rob somebody it will take the time for him to penetrate persons pockets, once he\'s in though, he should be able to take anything, but only a single object. during this time however a player can easily run away if he sees that he\'s being robbed.
2nd catch
the skill of theivery should be from 1-10. 1 being the slowest and worst level. Lets say you are a theif on level one, and you come up to a player, and start pickpocketing. there\'s a 10% chance that you will even penetrate his pockets, but then there\'s also a 30 second wait lets say. During that time a player will see that you are up to no good and can notify the authorities (

whoever that will be) or run away.
the more successful steals a theif has, the more he levels up, increasing the chance of stealing and the speed of theft.
3rd catch
if a theif is successful in theivery even once, there should be a very dim neon letter \"T\" above his head when he walks, so that if the ps has any police npcs or if there\'s gonna be pvp, depending on how good you can see the \"T\" you can take action.
The more the theif steals, the longer and brighter the \"T\" becomes.
Maybe this is stupid but it\'s the way I think would be ok as long not everyone will run to learn the theif skill because of being jelous of items people have

.