That sounds awfully specific to be common.
Though I have met a player that was always trying to break into houses and steal things. He never tried to pick pocket anyone. I guess he thought that as long as he was stealing from the homes of the people we were trying to protect it was ok, because they had fled for the time being.
The DM wasn't having any of it though: The first house had nothing of worth in it (because peasants), the second house featured a door that was opened very suddenly and knocked him out cold. The rest of us survived the fight without him at least.