Game Skyrim Forum

So I'm a thief and I was in the middle of a mission to the guild when all of a sudden these hired thugs came out of nowhere and almost blew my cover. Luckly I managed to get out of the scene quickly to deal with them on a more secluded location. Strangely enough they knew exactly where I was all the time, I couldn't hide from them.

I hope this was a one time thing because if these hired thugs start showing up in the middle of my stealth missions it's gonna be pretty annoying.

(spoilers blacked out because spoiler tags are ugly and break lines)
It's a one time thing, tied to the completion of the one quest where you steal the Falmer translation chart.

College of Winterhold has one also, where a random guy challenges you to a magic duel.

People will hire thugs to beat you up if they know you stole stuff from them, but dont have substantial evidence to turn you in. (and by substantial evidence i mean they dident witness it)

Try not to be seen in the house were somthing gets stolen. Sneak in and out and then youll be fine. Just entering a store, having the guy look at you, then crouching and stealing all his valuables will result in him knowing...its like a trigger.

Must have stolen something from an NPC and they sent the thugs after you. It's wierd because I had this happen when I snuck into some old lady's shack (forget her name) and went into her basemant. She attacked me as soon as I came out and I killed her. Yet she somehow got the message out that I needed to be "taken care of" by some thugs.

I don't think it happens a lot, but I also got some thugs after me from stealing steel ingots from Alvor in Riverwood. Yet no one saw me do it as I was hidden the entire time.

This is a pretty random and rare event and can be triggered by various things. I've only encountered it once though so I don't think it's going to be a hinderence to you.

Thats actually very impressive. I used to steal ingots & ores from blacksmiths back in the day to quickly boost my blacksmithing for free...

Now I know why I kept running into those thugs...

Ive played a thief character to the finishing of the Thieves Guild questline. Ive only had Hired Thugs come after me once and that was when I first stole something. I did not happen again.

Yeah in Whiterun there is a little girl and her mother. The mother works one of the vendors in the market. I broke into some of the houses and ended up liberating some items from their house. Later on I get jumped by some hired guys and after killing them I saw the contract. The name was very familiar but I couldn't quite figure it out. Then back at Whiterun I recognized the mother's last name. Then it hit me. The little girl hired those damn thugs. So after waiting till they went home to sleep, I snuck in and killed the mother leaving her an orphan (although it doesn't change anything other than me automatically failing a small quest).

Precursor: "Little girl... For you, the day that Precursor came to your town, it was the most important day of your life. For me... It was tuesday."

ooh thats bad :laugh:

the thugs are random events that people send after you if you stole something from them

Oh man, that is the best quote from the worst movie.

I only had the hired thugs come after me once, hired by one of the cleaning ladies in a Jarl's Hall. They attacked me in broad daylight, walking down the street in Solitude.