So i have beaten the game with a mage, a warrior, and an assassin (corresponding to the Collage, Companions, and Brotherhood) and now I am working on an thief....

I am taking the time to do some of the radiant jobs. My character is level 11 with sneak in the mid 30's....

The problem I am having is that none of the shopkeepers are falling asleep....

I pick the lock around midnight and wait for them to fall asleep, but they dont.... they just walk around the shop till 9am.

Is there something that I am doing wrong? I know the Apothecary in Markarth doesnt sleep....

My assassin would just kill them, but my thief doesnt want to do that....

hmmm try 1-2 am
thats my guess

You're not doing anything wrong, radiant schedules are far less than what they were in Oblivion and earlier titles. I hope the next ES doesn't have an AI like this.

Thanks!

guess ill just have to persevere....

I might just have to switch to daylight robbery....

Thievery goes much smoother during the day in Skyrim.

This, when everyone's outside, instead of.. er.. 'sleeping.'

I haven't been able to figure this one out yet. There have been times where I enter a house/shop at nighttime, and the owner is zonked out. Other times they will stay awake the entire time

Becuase the schedules are broken.

I know
Sometimes there seems to be an apparent pattern as to why weird bugs happen in TES games, but this one has me stumped.

Up in the mornin' to the rising sun, they gonna' run all day till the runnings done. Most shop keepers open up at 8am and close at 8pm.