I really hope all of you guys stole everything from the deck of many things. If that is not the case topic tags are given.
So here are the steps to steal any chest contents which has key that can be stolen.
Suppose you want to steal from Mr. X who has a locked chest and he has the key. Send your thief guy who has very good slight of hand skill just behind Mr. X and let him go sneak mode. Now, what happens is that my thief guy gets spotted since he just ducked behind Mr. X and Mr. X being very suspicious about that is guarding his pockets and watching you at the same time. Now take your most talkative party member and start a conversation with Mr. X. Since Mr. X is now talking to you, he completely forgot about the thief behind him and is vulnerable to theft. But there are a lot of guards in that area who can easily spot you now. This time however my thief gets ultra invis mode on while the conversation is still going on and his stealth indicator goes from red to yellow to nothing. Then finish the conversation and quickly press the pause button (spacebar). Now since you can steal anything when the game is paused, you can now pickpocket Mr. X. Repeat the same method to steal the chest now that you have stolen the key. And still the guards saw nothing, no bribes, pure thief skill.
I am sure many players have discovered this strategy and kept your mouth shut and I can understand that.
But yesterday I stole everything from Captain Thaenic after I discovered this strategy. And then I felt bad about stealing him blind, so I went in and killed them all (which was a very good fight). Now I feel bad about the whole scenario.
Jokes aside, the fact that other npc cannot see your party members when one member is in conversation and the game was not paused when the conversation started is very silly. It would be understandable if Mr. X could not see my thief and the others could see him while the conversation is going on.
Thank you all for not crucifying me for posting about this.