If you can position your character just right to where no one can see you ( by being behind an object or behind someone ), stand still, and wait for the to come up, you can successfully pickpocket anyone regardless of sneak level. Is this a glitch or is this meant to be in there? My guys sneak level is only like 18 and I've yet to get caught pickpocketing when I do this.

It all depends on the weight/expense/rarity of the object you are stealing. If they are meaningless items such as ammo or caps, you don't need to have a sneak very high. If you try to steal a weapon, on the other hand, you will get caught more often than not.

You can pickpocket regardless of your sneak level if you can manage to get yourself hidden, but your sneak level determines what you can successfully take from someone. Someone with a sneak skill of 18 can easily steal a key, but not something heavier like a gun or the armor the person is wearing. Next time you get a chance try to take the gun off of someone. The bigger the gun the more likely you'll fail.

Note that there -is- a minimal and maximal range. I don't remember the numbers off the top of my head, but you -always- have a chance to succeed, and you -always- have a chance to fail.

I never understood how to steal a gun from someone. In both FO3 and FNV the gun never shows up in the Pickpocketing items list. Is it somehow different when stealing guns versus regular pickpocketing? And you can actually take someone's armor off their body without them noticing? lol come on

You can't steal anything they are wearing. The idea is you are... picking their pockets!

You can also drag items to the other end of a room and then steal them.

La Longue Carabine is pretty hard to steal.

get hidden and snipe the dueds face off with the ratslayer.. or a silent varmint rifle or silent sniper rifle

I've taken guns off of people in Fallout 3 before. Maybe it wasn't the gun they were using but I have taken guns off of people. Same with spare armor. Maybe you can't take the armor someone is wearing off of them like I suggested in my previous post, but I could have sworn I did once back in Fallout 3. My memory is probably playing tricks on me again.

This is intended. Your chance of getting AWAY with it depend on your stealth skill.

However it appears to be a bug that some quest objectives are completed even if you don't retain possession of the item involved, like Cachino's journal. The objective updates, even if he takes the journal back from you because you were caught it will let you give the (now removed) journal to his bosses or sell him back the item he took back away from you.

No it is not a glitch, its always been like that. But, it is highly affected by your sneak skill and weight of the item.

Okay, when you want to steal a weapon someone is carrying, you have to steal all their ammo. Then load the area again and the gun will be in his pocket, which it now lets you attempt to pickpocket. If you want armor they're wearing you have to first place armor in their pocket which has hight DT than the one they currently have. They will equip that armor after you load the area in again and now you can also attempt to steal that weapon.

What if it's a lot of caps. Like, you know... 18,000?

I got Old Lady Gibson to repair all my stuff, but couldn't steal my caps back, so I cut her head off with an axe. Then I had my caps, and Fully repaired gear. Huzzah!

Yeah I know. I just don't like killing people that don't attack me or do something that is worthy of killing. weird I know.