A Thief's Tale (Idea for more thieving)

[Sevenless]

The problem with mechanics like this is that the people least able to defend themselves are the primary targets. Any kind of reasonable defense vs offense check factions will win (or the mechanic will be considered broken since no one can defend against it no matter how hard they try) or hermit will be the only ones who lose.

Beyond that you'll run into the issue of power leveled thief alts, such that the risk from actually stealing isn't that high.

[azrid]

Seems extremely hard to balance.
Introduces the need to have a lot of bank alts.
Makes you want to build 10 layers of walls.

I would love to see theft but not like OP.
Villages could have some kind of vault that you can fill with valuable items to get some kind of village buff.
Only stealing from the vault should be possible.
This way you aren't forced into a lot more annoying security measures but are encouraged to take part in thieving activities and making thieving available for other thieves.