2 seconds after I walk into Riften people start yelling and spells start flying..I was like..oh crap, what did I do now? Come to find out there was a thief in the marketplace. Everyone attacked and killed him. It was awesome..how's that for immersion? Stuff like that makes the game great imho.

That is neat. I ought to spend more time in Riften--or perhaps it's a possibility for any of the cities?

wait till the bodies start pileing

^{Spontaneous stuff like that is cool.}

It happens pretty often in Riften, but that's not the only place. I've walked into the trader in Riverwood while he was being robbed as well.

Any town, I've even chased down the thief. No body steals stuff in my territory and lives.

I've encountererd a thief like that in Riften too, some time ago. As a fellow thief I left him alone, but it was fun to see the entire city chase after him. Literally like 20 people trying to jump him, lol. After he was killed I decided to check what he had stolen: 2 chandeliers or something. Not quite worth getting killed over, lol.

It's only cool if it's not a quest-related NPC. I haven't had this problem (yet, that I know of) in Skyrim, but I remember in Oblivion, in the city of Bravil, there was this one idiot thief who, on one of my gameplays, got himself killed, but he was part of a quest which broke because he got killed as soon as I walked out of the pub where the previous NPC in the quest resides. I had to reload a save, and use paralyze or calm, or something like that on the other NPC that was trying to kill him, so that I could talk to the quest NPC before he died.

I have seen that happen but there is another thing there too!

Without giving anything away; There is a certain NPC in Riften that is important if you are doing certain quests and I have seen the same sort of thing happen to that NPC also - thing is I do not think that particular NPC is killable!

Set the scene - Enter Riften; guards running round shooting arrows seemingly random like.

Move to market via bridge at Bee and Barb - citizens shouting all kinds of stuff including "some one should do something"

Realise guards are not after you when you see the important NPC being shot at.

Stand back, eat an apple, drink a brew or two and watch in amazement as that NPC gets knocked down (and out) near a guard (resting on wall) then raises as if some life giving miracle has taken place only to immediately start a new fight with that guard and others that join in.

Continue watching the NPC repeatedly being beaten down then raising to be beat down again until you are bored of watching.