| Starting value of 35 in security and a journeyman's lockpick is enough for me to open the lock one try in three. At 9/100ths of a point raise per success, that's only about 33 tries to raise a point. Or only about 165 gold to train from 35 to 36, less then half the cost of conventional training at that level. Of course, you have to factor in the cost of the lockpick, but once you gain a few skill levels you can use the apprentice pick and those costs drop accordingly.
Yep, the other chest does not relock. Worse luck, if you pick it, check your bounty. I picked it and safely took the coins out of it once, I thought. Turned out no one said anything, but they did notice and I got a bounty of 40 put on me. Since I was carrying about 5000 in stolen goods it hurt when I got caught by the guards.
Which reminds me, it seems very difficult to successfully steal from the evidence chest even if you get it open unnoticed. With a sneak skill of eighty (stand behind someone alone indoors, a few feet back. Weight down the ctrl key to sneak, go read a book for a few hours, come back to an astronomical sneak skill) I couldn't pull it off.  |