Thug

Thugs or Courageous Citizens are citizens of the three big cities (Damascus, Acre, and Jerusalem) as well as Masyaf. They are more burly and tough-looking than most peasants, and are most notable for carrying Throwing Knives, which the player can pickpocket.

Thugs are also known as Courageous Citizens because if they spot you attacking an Interrogation target, they will join in the fistfight. They will never flee from a fistfight- instead choosing to fight until they collapse. If you draw a blade, however, they will run.

Throwing Knives
Each thug carries 5 throwing knives you can pickpocket. To pickpocket them, the player must press the Lock On button. Depending on control settings, the Lock On button will be either L1 (Playstation 3), Left Trigger (Xbox 360), or F (PC default layout). While targeting the victim, move Altaïr a few paces behind them and hold the Free Hand button, which will be either (Playstation 3), B (Xbox 360), or Shift (PC default layout). Once Altaïr is close enough, as long as you are not detected by the victim or a Guard, you will steal from the victim's bag, a successful Pickpocket. Each time you pickpocket them, you will receive 5 knives. If you happen to pickpocket as many knives as, or more knives than you can hold, your knife count will be maxed out and you will see the message "You have acquired the maximum number of knives".

You do not have to pickpocket them to get knives- if you defeat them in a fistfight you will get one, and only one knife. If you kill them by other means (i.e. with a sword), you will get no knives. Alternatively, return to Masyaf to return your Throwing Knife count to maximum.

Achievement
On the Xbox 360 version of Assassin's Creed, you can get an achievement by pickpocketing 200 knives from thugs:

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