im not talking about followers here
but in obliv and FO3 i really liked reverse pickpocketing helpful items onto people
no real reason, just to change the look of a town in obliv or make characters in danger a lot (like NPCs in non-closed cells in FO3) a bit safer

but when i reverse pickpocket things onto characters in skyrim the never use them
if its armor or clothing, they dont equip it
if its a weapon, they dont use it
even if the item is better than what they have, they just ignore it in the inventory
and even when a character comes up to you and asks if they can have the item you just dropped (very rare) they dont even use it then

Ex. i wanted the jarl of markarth to look a bit more dwarven-city-ruler'ish, so i gave him some dawarven gauntlets just to give his look a bit of dwemer vibe
but he never equips it even though he doesnt even wear any handwear to begin with

is this how it should be, or is it a glitch?

I like your style.

I never thought of that... you could equip all the gaurds in a town in full daedric lol.

If this worked in pervious Beth games like you say it's a real shame if it doesn't work here.

Does it work in New Vegas?