Very simple, the goal is to get lockpicking to 6, then 7.

As soon as you get up and are allowed to go from Peshek's mill (after talking with Theresa and Peshek, etc), talk to him again and let him give you the first thieving quest and do it (go to the executioner and get a ring for him, can be bought from the executioner for a couple groshen if you want to do it quick), then, once you return to him and he tells you to deliver it to a friend, talk to him again about selling stolen goods so he opens his shop and you can buy a few lockpicks from him.

Ask him to teach you how to lockpick chests and he'll give you a tutorial quest and 5 lockpicks and after you complete this simple tutorial, you can pick the same chest about 10 times for lockpicking XP and after that, it will always be open (so you can't just farm it forever) but no worries! there are more than enough houses, chests and stuff nearby (specially if you go inside Rattay), so just keep picking (and stealing if you want, but your goal is to get the skill to 6) it will only take about 10-20m, less if you know where the pickable chests are located and pay Peshek for training (at level 0 and 5, can only be trained once at each tier).

Once you are at level 6, pick the perk ''Luck of the Drunk'', don't worry about what it says about making more noise, that will be irrelevant. Now that you have the perk, you'll notice that as soon as you are a bit drunk (for example after drinking just one saviour schnapp) you will be able to easily pick ''Hard'' chests, but sadly, ''Very Hard'' ones will still automatically break your pick... until level 7! so you only have to pick a few locks more.

On to the next step!

Now that you got the ''Luck of the Drunk'' perk and level 7 lockpicking (probably by this point, 8), save and wait until night and go to the right building from where you sleep, you'll notice a ''Very Hard'' door, wait until Peshek is sleeping, take off all your clothes (wich leaves you with a rating of 0 noise), take a sip from your alcoholic beverage of choice (there are plenty free to steal on nearby houses) and pick it, then pick the ''Very Hard'' chest inside.

As you'll notice, this is Peshek's shop inventory, and every merchant of the game has an associated store chest where they put at night their shiny, valuable items that you can regularly buy from their stores. Yes, the complete inventory! So just take from it whatever you want (at this point it'll only have a few coins, a book, bandages, lockpicks and a treasure map) and leave the door open (since he never goes inside that room, he will never close the door, so it will never relock)

Now, people that have played Morrowind will probably know where this is going, and will probably agree that, like in Morrowind, there should be some limits to this, but since there are none, carry on!

Go to Rattay, the big walled city just in front of the mill and look for the Weaponsmith, Armorer and Tailor.

Now, just as the section title say, get naked, drunk, pick their doors, reach the store inventory room, steal everything from it (while overcumbered, you'll still be able to move, just slowly, and as long as they don't catch you in the act of lockpicking, they'll just tell you to leave)

Weaponsmith: facing the forge in the alley, turn to your right, you can pick the door just in front of the forge, then to your left is the room.

Armorer: this is a bit tricky, as they sleep wall to wall with the room, so if you can't do it at night, do it at day while you work on getting perks that reduce noise when picking locks, it'll just have less of their inventory since they take it out to sell.
The room is on the second floor, so just go around the building, go up the stairs on the back, pick the door, then to your right is the room.

Tailor: this is the easiest, as they sleep on the building on top of the shop, so even if they hear you (and they usually do if you are not careful), you can exit the shop before they come down, since it's a long way using the stairs.
The room is on the back of the shop, the only door besides the entrance.

Once you have looted it all (if you had to leave some behind, don't worry, it won't go anywhere), just return to the mill. Since the chests have 3-4k groshen inside, if a guard stops you, just bribe him, it always works and he will not search you.

Now that you are back at the mill, after selecting what you want to keep (weapons, armor, repair kits, etc), go to your personal chest and store that stuff there, taking the rest with you to Peshek's chest (wich will probably have relocked itself by now, but you can just pick it again).

''But wait! Am I just going to gift it all to him? why not sell it to him directly?'' you'll ask.

Yep, you could do that, but since he doesn't have enough money for it all, it'll be easier than going thru a loading screen (if he's even awake by the time you get back at the mill), puting everything on the window, and having to confirm, so let's just do it the fast way: put everything you don't want inside his chest (and this goes even for non stolen stuff!)

Now wait until his inventory reset, should be between 2 and 3 days, just play like normal or wait/sleep.

Go to the chest again, pick it and surprise! all the stuff you put in is gone! and in it's place? a corresponding amount of groshen, since it counts as if he sold everything on his chest (as to delete the stuff for the reset)!

Just by taking the stuff from the armorer, I make 42k each trip, so if you took their 3 inventories, you'll probably will be swimming in money for the rest of the game.

That's it, works in normal and hardcore. Easy as that, infinite easy money and the best gear in the game (full plate armor, best clothes and best weapons) without doing any other quest after the tutorial than the first thieving quest (at least until the point Peshek opens his store to the player).

Now since you still will have 0 skill with repairs and maintenance but are filthy rich, you can just go to get you armor and weapons repaired once in a while at the city, otherwise, just use the repair kits you stole. Don't worry about the stolen tag, you can just bribe your way out by a mere 25 groshen, and the tag will dissapear in a couple of in game days.

Just repeat when (IF, lol) you run low on money, or need any item from their inventory (like repair kits or more money) as everything respawns when they reset, even their base money (if you pay them for repairs or items, you'll have to wait until night for them to put the money back on the chest, so you can steal it back.)

Hope it helps! This way, since plate armor is basically invincibility, now that you have the best in the game, you can just cruise easily even on hardcore and you'll never have to run away again!

1. Peshek's room at the mill (door near the horse).


2. Weaponsmith side door.


2.1. Weaponsmith inventory room (the open door I'm looking at).


3. Armorer alley.


3.1. Armorer back door (top of stairs)


3.2. Armorer inventory room (the open door, you can see the chest).


4. Tailor.


4.1 Tailor inventory room (closed door).