Readme:

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  Morrowind Inhabitants:
    Pickpocket! (created by scruggs)
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Requirements: MWSE v0.9.2 or higher
                          Tribunal & Bloodmoon
                          (MWInhabitants: Freeform is recommended as well)


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  About the Plugin
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While wandering through the towns and cities of Vvardenfell, I often find myself uttering the same complaint I did while on school vacation during the summer: "Nothing ever HAPPENS around here!" Morrowind's NPCs have no lives, and almost never do anything (other than attack you on sight) unless your character deliberately initiates it. The aim of this plugin (like the other MWInhabitants mods) is to add a little excitement to your character's life, by populating the cities of Vvardenfell with a new type of NPC - Pickpockets!

If you've used the original 2-year-old beta release of MWInhabitants, you probably quickly grew tired of being robbed every ten seconds by faster-than-light thieves who seemed to pop up out of nowhere. Good news: this entirely revamped version has not only been completely rescripted, it is also easily customizable to suit your preferences.

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  Installation
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To install, extract the .zip archive into your Morrowind folder. The plugin contains 2 esp files. The Flee AI Patch makes an intentional change to one Game Setting, which increases the distance to which a fleeing NPC will run during combat. If you have another mod which tweaks flee AI (such as Wakim's), or you don't want to change this setting, don't use the AI patch; it's completely optional.

This plugin requires MWSE v0.9.2. Older versions exist, including a 0.9.2 Alpha release. Probably 90% of problems with other MWSE mods I've released have been caused by using an older version of MWSE. Please make sure to download and use the newest one, and read the documentation for it. One source for download is home1.gte.net/cdcooley.

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  Playing the Plugin
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Pickpockets spawn randomly in 14 of Vvardenfell's towns and cities, and respawn continually throughout your game. Larger towns generally have more pickpockets than smaller ones. When robbed by a pickpocket, you will hear him taunt you, and a message will appear at the bottom of the screen indicating what was stolen. The pickpocket will then flee with the loot. You can give chase, and bring down the thief by whatever means necessary. But if you lose sight of him for too long, he may elude you. In that case, your stolen goods are gone forever...

...Or are they? Try asking about Pickpockets around town. Guards can tell you where the local thieves' hideouts are located. If you hurry, you should be able to track down the thief at one of those locations before he has a chance to fence the stolen goods. Any information about local thieves' hideouts will be stored in your Journal, so if you forget the locations you can just look them up.

When chasing down a thief, running blindly after him isn't always the best course of action. If you have a decent Sneak skill, you can wait for him to pause for breath, then creep up behind him. Ranged weapons and spells are also useful. If you prefer to fight him at close range, a Fortify Speed or Athletics spell or enchantment will make it easier to catch up to him. Of course, you have the disadvantage of trying to hit a moving target, without hurting innocent bystanders.

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  Customizing the Plugin
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People had a love-hate relationship with the pickpockets in the original release of MWInhabitants. I personally deplored them: they were buggy, spawned much too frequently, and were entirely too fast. But some people just seemed to really enjoy getting mugged, and this led to numerous patches being released by other modders to correct some of the flaws of the original mod.

With this new release, many improvements have been made to the pickpockets' behavior. First and foremost, their speed is now directly related to your speed, ensuring that they are never too fast to catch, yet fast enough to give you a good run for your money (literally, haha). But there are several aspects of their behavior which are really a matter of personal preference, and that's where you come in. If you're not happy with the default settings, you can change them.

To set your preferences for the mod, enter the console by pressing the '~' (tilde) key. Then type the following:

  StartScript MI_PP_Config_S

...and hit return. You'll see a message box asking you how frequently you want the pickpockets to spawn. You have five options, ranging from "never" (which essentially turns the mod off) to "frequent" (which is still rather low). The default is "Occassional". You may need to wait until the next game day for any change to take effect.

After choosing the spawn frequency, you have another option. When you lose sight of a pickpocket, he is not gone for good; instead he will travel to his hideout in a nearby smuggler's cave, where he stashes his loot. By default, you'll have about 3 days to track him down in his hideout and recover your stolen goods. But maybe you're not comfortable with the possibility of losing your goods forever. So you can choose instead to have the goods remain in the hideout until you get around to recovering them. In this case, you'll find them stashed in a barrel or crate inside the hideout when you arrive. Personally, I think this ruins the mod, as it destroys the sense of urgency which compels you to pursue the pickpocket in the first place. But I'll leave it up to you.

The third option allows you to customize the running speed of the pickpockets. Their speed is directly calculated from your own character's speed. At the default setting, they will run just a tad faster than your character can. This is balanced out by their habit of stopping for breath every few seconds, allowing you to catch up with them. You can increase or decrease their relative speed to suit your preference. Note that with a decent Athletics skill, you'll have an advantage over the pickpocket. There is also a cap on their Speed at 250.

Finally, you can toggle what types of items the pickpocket can steal from you. By default, they will steal one randomly-chosen, non-equipped item from your inventory. For items that stack, such as projectiles, they will steal the whole stack. But for gold, they will steal only a percentage of your total. If you prefer that they leave your items alone, and only steal gold, you can adjust that here.


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  Technical Notes
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There's probably not a whole lot that can go wrong with this plugin, because there's not much to it. However, if you encounter strange errors, or find yourself unable to recover a stolen item which you KNOW is supposed to be in a certain location, it is likely that you accidentally deleted the database which is created by the plugin. Morrowind can also very rarely mess up this file, if it crashes for an unrelated reason while the file is being accessed. (We all know that crashing is what Morrowind does best). To reset the database, type the following in the console window:

  StartScript MI_PP_Build_Data_S

That will restore the database to its original state.

I've tried to make the pickpockets' behavior as realistic as possible, but Morrowind's flee AI is a little wonky. Using the Flee AI Patch included with this mod helps a bit. But fleeing combatants still tend to pause a certain distance away from you, and remain motionless until you get close to them again. Use your imagination and pretend that they are stopping to catch their breath, or looking around to see if you are still in pursuit. Also, occassionally the pickpocket might think you've lost sight of him due to some obstacle like a flag or tree which doesn't actually completely block your view. We're going to pretend that at these times, he uses a Recall spell to return to his hideout. I even added a magical effect when he vanishes to make that seem more plausible.

I'm not aware of any incompatibilities with other mods, but as usual, given the huge number of mods out there, a few are bound to crop up. It's very unlikely that there will be any major conflicts, though, especially since this mod alters nothing which exists in the original game. It just adds one new leveled creature to some of the towns, and some new containers to a few caves.

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Other Mods
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If you enjoy this mod, by all means go and download MWInhabitants: Freeform. It adds six new types of randomly-generated, infinitely respawning quests to Morrowind, including a brand-new Arena faction.

Keep an eye out for upcoming MWInhabitants mods, including:
  ~Holidays - adds holidays to the Morrowind calendar. Some are carried over from Daggerfall, others are new. On holidays, some merchants may offer discounts or free services. Summoning days allow you to worship at any daedric shrine to that particular day's Daedra Prince to gain their favor. And some holidays are just spooky, like Tales and Tallows, when the undead walk amongst the living. (Jester's Day is particularly fun if you have Pickpockets installed as well).
  ~Escort Missions - These are randomly-generated, and feature interesting challenges not found in Morrowind's escort quests. Your traveling companion may be a target for assassination; in need of healing for a disease; or have some secret which requires special attention on your part. In all cases, your job is to protect him and get him safely to his destination.
  ~Cursed Artifacts - These appear in leveled loot and look like ordinary or enchanted items. But they are cursed. Some have hidden negative enchantments. Others are protected by spirit guardians. Still others, while beneficial, cannot be removed once equipped unless you're willing to pay an enchanter to remove the curse.

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  Acknowledgements
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As always, cdcooley and freshFish get massive kudos for their work on the MWScriptExtender.
Dave Humphrey's excellent MWEdit program was used to compile the scripts in this plugin.
ghanBuriGhan compiled all the MW scripting knowledge of the universe into his MWScripting For Dummies.
gato did a fantastic job of taming the pickpockets in the beta release of MWInhabitants.
And all of you ever-helpful and encouraging furmites deserve a big thanks too.

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  Feedback
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If you experience a problem with this plugin, let me know! Please include detailed information; the more you tell me, the better able I will be to fix the problem. I'd appreciate if you include the contents of your Morrowind Script Extender.log file, as well as any error messages received. You can PM me on the Official Elder Scrolls Forums (www.elderscrolls.com/forums) as scruggsywuggsy the ferret. Or email me at scruggsywuggsy@hotmail.com.

some one beat me to it oh well, hey Lord Domino time to update your windows is it?
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?app=forums&module=forums§ion=findpost&pid=4051137

it also occurred with a pickpocketing in Suran.

I left all the options at the defaults, which look reasonable to me

Well, I must admit to have misunderstood the documentation then (yes, I did read it). I thought the items would end in the containers in any case, regardless of the setting.
I do want it with the 3 days timelimit, for the very reasons to wrote yourself: The sense of urgency.

I could have sworn there was no pickpocket in either Suran smuggler hideout, but I don't have that savegame anymore, so cannot verify it. Perhaps I just missed him.

I just tested it in Balmora right now, got robbed, let the guy disappear, asked the guard and went to the cave west of Balmora. Among the other NPCs (havn't been there yet), I also found the thief including the stolen item. So this works fine.
I will try again in Suran and watch out for the NPC in the cave.
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?app=forums&module=forums§ion=findpost&pid=4136226