I've got the quest and did up to the part where you have to go and steal the horse and optionally steal his stash. I've been avoiding doing any more of it because of all the stuff I've read about Louis Letrush multiplying near Whiterun.
has anyone been able to finish the quest without getting that glitch or is this something everyone has to deal with?

I have 4 Louis Letrush's at the stable but I dont think I had any trouble finishing the quest. but then that was several hundred hours ago...

I stole the horse from Louis Letrush and kept the Horse, so far Im lucky, I've only got one Louis duplicate outside Whiterun and not hundreds.

But I've been unlucky with all the other bugs and glitches

• I've been fairly lucky as far as glitches. Only a couple minor ones so far after 250 hours. But I don't really want a hundred Letrushes running around Skyrim bogging the game down even more.

Wait I only have 2 in the stables... how many more do you get? And why?

I just use them both for sneak archery practice ^^

I've got two of them so far.

I have one and a half Louis Letrush' outside the stables in Whiterun.

I've done the quest, but afterwards he showed up near Winterhold with a Thug and the Thug killed him. Then later I seen him out side of Riften lol.

I finished this quest early in my game, by stealing the horse Frost and not returning it to Louis. Since then I have only seen one Louis; outside whiterun stables.
However I recently went over 200 hours gametime and 16mb file size and am seeing formerly dead npcs suddenly respawning. I have yet to see anymore Louis Letrush but am wondering if that has any connection to multiplications of Louis appearing throughout the game world?

I completed the quest ok early on, then for a while I noticed an unkillable Louis running around on the road between Windhelm and Winterhold, helping to keep the wolf and bear population down. Now I've finally been to Whiterun I've seen two and a half Louis at the stables.

I also have

To get rid of the extra Letrush's just bring up the console click on one and type in disable and they will disappear.

I completed it yesterday( persuaded him to let me take Frost) & i have yet to see him & his many twin brothers anywhere else.

That said, He did insist upon attacking Frost & my companions on a couple of attempts, A reload or two got me past that issue, after spending thousands of hours playing Bethesda games my bum cheeks always tense up on critcal mission moments as they always seem to go wrong.

Why on earth would you want to get rid of them. Skyrim needs more npcs not less.

I have one of him at whiterun stables, I took the money. He didn't take the horse though, he just ran away.

I have four Louis outside Whiterun stables. Funny thing, while I was defending Whiterun from the Stormcloaks during the civil war, Louis ran thru my crossfire and got hit with an arrow. He remained hostile even after the battle had ended, so I thought, eh, I'll put an end to his misery. Apparently he's essential. And every time he'd yield - to me, or to one of the soldiers who were assisting me- he would spawn another copy. Who would then engage in battle as well! It was hilarious! But I realized this could really mess up my game if there was a never ending loop of Whiterun Guards vs. Louis Letrush clones. So I reloaded and fought the battle again, being very very careful not to hit him with my arrows this time!

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his glitch where he multiplies has no impact on the quest, but I have avoided his cloning glitch

I have four Louises (Louii?) that hang out in a clingy little cluster, all nose-to-shoulder, outside one of the farmhouses just east of Whiterun. They never really seem to do much but stand in a little circle.

I gave him the horse and have yet to see him.

Yes, he paid me and I kept the horse and I didn't even have to kill him. And I haven't had any problem with him or the quest.

disable does not work for me. I've been trying to disable my housecarls. I'm just going to turn into a werewolf and kill them.

Update: I have 1.5 of them outside Whiterun stables. Apparently the victim of some kind of inter-dimensional travel and/or teleportation mishap.

The bug only happens after you finish the quest. So far on the two characters I did it on he showed up in front of the stables and multiplied. However, using the console all I had to do was disable all of the extra ones, and then the remaining Louis Letrush went on his way and stopped hanging out in front of the stables.

didn't have any trouble whit it.. stole the horse and returned it.. only thing was that some assassin tried to kill us at the same time i wanted to deliver the horse. didn't pay attention to duplicates though.