Beyond Divinity is good for pickpocketing. Divine Divinity is not so suited for this. I'd go for stealing in a simple way => take a barrel into your inventory and then open it - shove everything you want in there, leave it open and leave the shop. Then sort out your loot.
Pickpocket is only required for 2 quests:
lvl 1 in Verdistis to steal a necklace in the thieves guild
lvl 2(?) in the poor quarters to cure all 3 plague candidates.
A very important skill in Div is: lockpick (broken in Beyond Divinity).
Kiya
