Could have easily been someone noticed his gear, noticed his current exploration, and put a mob in his path to kill him so he can loot.

My suggestion as you walk out the door is for you not to get so attached to gear, or don't play a class dependent on certain gear (yours wasn't).

People are going to kill you. You won't always see it coming. When you die all of your things are potentially forfeited. When you get back to your corpse if there is anything in it someone did you a favor by not taking it. Your perspective should be 'oh good, I still have things'. That is how I got over being looted heavy.

But really I'm just happy this isn't a snot bubble filled IMM rant. I've seen players do some actual terrible things that would run off new players. Looting, even taking 5 good items, isn't really one of them. If this guy leaves over this, then this game really isn't for him to begin with. It's a PK mud where you don't necessarily get to keep your gear if you die.