Yeah I selected respawn and they didn't I waited 3 days and no respawn?  I even went to another district and waited 3 days still no respawn?
This is the default way for items to respawn, I hear that items will respawn after 3 days of not being in that cell. I had this happen to me (though I did not count the passage of  time) with a cupboard I thought was safe to store items in. I lost all the stuff I had in it. And the original items were all that were in it.
Here is a crazy idea: Put a script on the chest that gives you items directly every time you activate it, instead of having it function like a chest. For example (I haven't tested this, but I don't see why it wouldn't work):
scn MYPREFIXGoldChestBegin OnActivate	if ( GetActionRef == Player )		Player.AddItem 0000000F 50 ; gives 50 gold to player	else		Activate	endifEnd
...or a script that would allow you to get the items or open the container, like this:
scn MYPREFIXGoldChest2Begin OnActivate	MessageBox "What would you like to do?" "Receive Gold" "Open Container" "Nevermind"EndBegin GameMode	set Button to GetButtonPressed	if ( Button == -1 )		Return	elseif ( Button == 0 ) ;Recieve Gold		Player.AddItem 0000000F 50 ; gives 50 gold to player	elseif ( Button == 1 ) ;Open Container		Activate	elseif ( Button == 2 ) ;Nevermind		return	endifEnd
Like I mentioned earlier I have not tested this.  But this should at least illustrate my point.