When you create a character, distribute some skill points into lockpicking, and
buy some lockpicks. Now, when you play through the first area and get to Shrouded
Hills, find the locations of the stores. Then, sleep until evening, and sleep a 
few more hours until everyone else is sleep (ie. 2 more hours). Then, go to stores
and pick the locks to enter. Be careful not to let the guards see you doing this. 
(You can enter from windows, in order to avoid guards.) In each store, there should
be a locked container, pick it and you'll see the store's contents. You can take 
all the expensive items, and then sell them back to the store. Usually, everything
is restocked after a day, or when you leave the town and return.