So got a tad bored inbetween quests and stuck molag bal's mace in the head of the owner of Riften stables. To my suprise he was LOADED with gems. Random violence sometimes pays

Wut? Random thread?

You could have like... Pickpocketed. Raised your skill. Why so brutal?

Had a bad day in real life....i didnt save

If you loot the body after you kill an NPC does it contain the same items as it does when you pickpocket it?? I don't remember finding lots of gems when I picked that guys pocket.

The answer is no, when you pickpocket the stuff availiable is different, when you kill them you get all they have, pickpocket only gets you some of the stuff.

Really? I always thought the only difference was that you couldn't pickpocket items they were wearing, unless you had the perks. No I'll have to make an experiment and kill that guy in Riften...

This is true, I have tested it half a dozen times. Only difference I ever found was equiped items.