I go after a lot of skillbooks in the early game, the ones that permanently change your skills. Some of them have to be stolen, like the one in the bar at the Mojave Outpost - and that place has so many NPC's wandering around in it, the deed seems impossible.

But it's actually one of the easiest ones to get.

If you press down on the right joystick on an XBOX 360 controller, you can pick an item up and carry it in front of you. You will have the option to "TAKE" the item, but just carrying it around is not stealing it. TAKING it is...

I'm not sure what the control for that is in PS3 or for PC, but I'm sure there is one.

Anyway, what you do is pick up the book from under the bar counter and carry it away right in front of everyone while in sneak mode, until the top center screen display tells you that you are hidden. Once you are hidden you can "TAKE" whatever it is, and you will lose karma, but you won't be caught stealing...

You can go into another room, find a corner to wait in until most people are gone (Sloan workers barracks was like that), or even just pick the thing up and wait until nobody is looking at you.

The one real tough one was a book in Cannibal Johnsons Cave. It calls for a high sneak level because that old man is the most alert old codger in the whole game I think. I kept showing as "DETECTED" until I got to level 50 sneak and used one of the Phantoma books - I'd have used a Stealth Boy if I had to!!!

So that's it in brief.

Pick up the item.

Carry it to a concealed spot.

If there is only one other person in the room, try to get behind them with it.

When you are "HIDDEN" pocket the loot and go.

Z key on the PC lets you pick up an item and carry it. I move bodies around this way, stack them out of sight if I'm tired of seeing them.

In Fallout 3 someone commented that where bodies respawn depends on where they fell when killed, so a fun trick is to carry dead things and people to where they are together with natural enemies, or in the middle of frag mines, etc...

Where the body is left, is where they come back, in other words. So sometimes you can set up alternative re-spawns that are to your advantage.

How well that works in New Vegas is debatable. I have tried carrying cazadors to where the legion guys appear near El Dorago Gas and Service and vice versa, but it doesn't always work.

If you are so lucky as to spot exactly where a respawn point is - you can often salt the place with frag mines, satchel charges, or even FAT MINES.

But to steal stuff with the carry function is a revelation - except when you have a guy like Cannibal Johnson who has eyes on the back of his bald head...