Stealing off Packs, i found on OSI shards, you had to be in a guild. and then tell the pack to guard you. ever try stealing from a backpack on the ground? it used to work :-)

as for NPC's i find if you hire one, tell it to guard you, attack it, then tell it too stay, it would stop attacking you, but you would carry on attacking it, thus all you need to do is heal the NPC. weather or not this "Tactic" still works i dont know. give it a try.