Thieving

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This article is about the Thieving skill. For information on training Thieving, see Thieving training.

Thieving
Also known as	Thief
Release date	30 April 2002 (Update unknown)
Members only?	Yes
Players with 99	34,245 as of 20 April 2019
Players with 200M XP	264 as of 20 April 2019

Thieving is a members-only skill which allows players to obtain coins and items by stealing from market stalls, chests, or by pickpocketing non-player characters. This skill also allows players to unlock doors and disarm traps. 

Thieving level-up music (link)

The first music that can be played when leveled up.

 

Thieving level-up music (link)

The second music that can be played when leveled up.

Pickpocketing

A player pickpocketing a cornered guard.

This is the act of walking up to an NPC and right clicking them, then selecting Pickpocket. If successful, you will gain Thieving experience and possibly coins or various items. However, it is possible for the NPC to notice a pickpocket, in which case the NPC will yell "What do you think you're doing?" or some other surprised saying and stun you for four seconds, which will take off a couple of your Hitpoints. Because of the possibility for damage, it is recommended that players bring food. The equipment that a player wears does not affect the success rate, aside from H.A.M. clothing, Ardougne cloak or Gloves of silence. However, equipping a bow without arrows makes it impossible to accidentally attack an NPC.

Contrary to common belief, the player does NOT need to wait until the pickpocket animation is finished before pickpocketing again. The NPC may be pickpocketed as soon as the sound of the item stolen entering your inventory is played. This could effectively double your experience per hour if you were previously waiting for the animation to finish.

A useful trick that allows pickpocket spamming is by going to the Controls (Joystick) settings tab and changing the attack option priority to 'Always right-click', this effectively turns the Attack NPC left-click into pickpocket NPC left-click for most NPCs.

Thievable NPCs

Picture	NPC name	Level	Exp.	Possible loot/Notes	Stun time (seconds)	Stun damage
File:Thief man.png	Man/Woman	1	8	3 coins	5	1
File:Thief farmer.png	Farmer	10	14.5	9 coins, 1 potato seed	5	1
File:Thief ham woman.png	Female H.A.M. member	15	18.5	Buttons, rusty sword, damaged armour, feathers, bronze arrow, Clue Scroll (Easy), bronze axe, bronze dagger, bronze pickaxe, cow hide, iron axe, iron pickaxe, leather armour, logs, thread, raw anchovies, raw chicken, iron ore, coal, steel arrows, steel axe, steel pickaxe, grimy herbs, knife, needle, steel dagger, tinderbox, uncut jade, uncut opal, H.A.M. boots, H.A.M. gloves, H.A.M. cloak, H.A.M. shirt, H.A.M. robe, H.A.M. logo, H.A.M. hood, coins. Wearing H.A.M. clothing increases the success rate.	4	1-3
File:Thief ham man.png	Male H.A.M. member	20	22.5	Buttons, rusty sword, damaged armour, feathers, bronze arrow, Clue Scroll (Easy), bronze axe, bronze dagger, bronze pickaxe, cow hide, iron axe, iron pickaxe, leather armour, logs, thread, raw anchovies, raw chicken, iron ore, coal, steel arrows, steel axe, steel pickaxe, grimy herbs, knife, needle, steel dagger, tinderbox, uncut jade, uncut opal, H.A.M. boots, H.A.M. gloves, H.A.M. cloak, H.A.M. shirt, H.A.M. robe, H.A.M. logo, H.A.M. hood, coins Wearing H.A.M. clothing increases the success rate.	4	1-3
File:Thief warrior.png	Warrior woman/Al-Kharid warrior	25	26	18 coins, Warrior women can be found in the back main level rooms of varrock palace.	5	2
File:Thief rogue.png	Rogue	32	35.5	25/40 coins, lockpick, iron dagger(p), wine, 8 air runes. Found deep in Wilderness southwest of Mage Training.	5	2
File:Thief cave goblin.png	Cave goblin	36	40	Coins, iron ore, tinderbox, swamp tar, oil lantern, torch, green gloop soup, frogspawn gumbo, frog burger, crispy froglegs, bat shish, wall beast fingers, bullseye lantern, cave goblin wire .	5	1
File:Thief master farmer.png	Master Farmer	38	43	All allotment, hop, herb, bush and flower seeds, cactus seed, belladonna seed, mushroom spores. Rarity increases with the farming level of the seed.	5	3
File:Thief guard.png	Guard	40	46.8	30 coins	5	2
File:Thief fremenik.png	Fremennik Citizen	45	65	40 coins	5	2
File:Thief bandit.png	Bearded Pollnivnian Bandit	45	65	Antipoison, lockpick, 40 coins	5	5
File:Thief desert bandit.png	Desert Bandit	53	79.5	30 coins, antipoison, lockpick	5	3
File:Thief knight.png	Knight	55	84.3	50 coins	5	3
File:Thief bandit.png	Pollnivian Bandit	55	84.3	50 coins	5	5
File:Thief watchman.png	Yanille Watchman	65	137.5	60 coins, 1 bread	5	3
File:Thief thug.png	Menaphite Thug	65	137.5	60 coins	5	5
	Paladin	70	151.75	80 coins, 2 chaos runes	5	3
File:Thief gnome.png	Gnome	75	198.5	300 coins, 1 earth rune, gold ore, Fire orb, swamp toad, King worm	5	1
	Hero	80	275	200/300 coins, 1 blood rune, 1 diamond, wine, 2 death runes, fire orb, gold ore	6	4
	Elf	85	353	280/350 coins, 3 nature runes, diamond, wine, 2 death runes, fire orb, gold ore	6	5

Stalls

File:Stealsilkstall.png

An example of a silk stall found in the East Ardougne marketplace.

There are a large number of stalls throughout RuneScape, although many of them are in the Ardougne Market. Unlike pickpocketing NPCs, stealing from stalls have a 100% success rate as long as you are not in the line of sight of the stall owner or any of the nearby guards. It should be noted you may not interact with the stall owner for up to 10 minutes after the last theft from his or her stall.

Thievable Stalls

Stall	Level	Exp.	Items	Location	Respawn Time
Vegetable Stall	2	10	Onion, cabbage, potato, tomato, or garlic	Miscellania, Etceteria	2 seconds
Baker's Stall	5	16	Cake(62%), chocolate slice(9%), or bread(27%) *percentage based on 1000 stolen times rounded down	Ardougne, Keldagrim	2 seconds
Crafting Stall	5	16	Chisel, ring mould, or necklace mould	Ape Atoll, Keldagrim	7 seconds
Monkey Food Stall	5	16	Banana	Ape Atoll	7 seconds
Monkey General Stall	5	16	Pot, hammer, or tinderbox	Ape Atoll	7 seconds
Tea Stall	5	16	Cup of tea	Varrock	7 seconds
Silk Stall	20	24	Silk	Ardougne, Keldagrim	5 seconds
Wine Stall	22	27	Jug of water, jug of wine, grapes, empty jug, bottle of wine	Draynor	16 seconds
Fruit stall	25	28	Cooking apple, strawberries, bananas, redberries, jangerberries, strange fruit, lime, lemon, pineapple, papaya, Golovanova fruit top	Logava Gricoller's Cooking Supplies	2 seconds
Seed Stall	27	10	potato, onion, cabbage, tomato, sweetcorn, strawberry, watermelon, barley, hammerstone seed, asgarnian Seed, jute, yanillian seed, krandorian, wildblood, marigold, rosemary, nasturtium	Draynor; In the market just south of the pig pen	18 seconds
Fur Stall	35	36	Grey wolf fur	Ardougne, Rellekka	10 seconds
Fish Stall	42	42	Raw salmon, raw tuna, or raw lobster	Rellekka, Miscellenia, Etceteria	10 seconds
Crossbow Stall	49	52	Bronze bolts (3), bronze limbs, wooden stock	Keldagrim	9 seconds
Silver Stall	50	54	Silver ore	Ardougne, Keldagrim	30 seconds
Spice Stall	65	81	Spice	Ardougne	80 seconds
Magic Stall	65	100	Air, earth, fire, water, or law rune	Ape Atoll	80 seconds
Scimitar Stall	65	100	Iron scimitar	Ape Atoll	80 seconds
Gem Stall	75	160	Uncut sapphire, uncut emerald, uncut ruby, uncut diamond	Ardougne, Keldagrim	180 seconds

Chests

There are chests scattered throughout RuneScape. Some chests will have traps on them, to discover what lay inside of them, the trap must be disarmed using the Thieving skill, click on the chest and select "Search for traps" from the drop down menu to allow your character to disarm the trap and obtain the items inside. After a player thieves from a chest, he will need to wait for a short period of time before he can again thieve from the chest. Sometimes chests will have dual traps the initial trap disarmed by the Thieving skill and a secondary trap that releases Poison Gas into the air, so lower level players should be cautious. If "Search for traps" is not selected when attempting to thieve from a chest, the player will attempt to open the chest and take damage, this damage scales off of your current health down to a minimum.

Thievable Chests

Chest	Level	Exp.	Items	Location	Respawn Time
10 Coin Chest	13	7.8	10 coins	East Ardougne (two); the second chest up the ladder in the house with the just south of the north bank the chest in the empty house east of the east Baker's Stall	7 seconds
Nature Rune Chest	28	25	3 coins, Nature rune	East Ardougne (two) the first chest up the ladder in the house with the just south of the north bank north most chest upstairs in the empty house just east of the Gem Stall.	8 seconds
50 Coin Chest	43	125	50 coins	Ardougne, Axe Hut	50 seconds
Arrow Tip Chest	47	150	5 Steel Arrow Tips	Hemenster, Rellekka	210 seconds
Dorgesh-Kaan (Average chests)	52	200	about 100-300 Coins, Bullseye lantern, Oil lantern, Cave goblin wire, Mining helmet, Clue scroll (Easy)	Dorgesh-Kaan	210 seconds
Blood Rune Chest	59	250	500 coins, 2 Blood runes	Chaos Druid Tower	135 seconds
Paladin Chest (King Lathas Chest)	72	500	1,000 coins, Raw shark, Adamant ore, Uncut sapphire	Ardougne Palace	400 seconds
Dorgesh-Kaan (Rich chests)	78	650	500-2,500 coins, Uncut sapphire, Uncut emerald, Uncut ruby, Uncut diamond, Uncut opal, Uncut jade, Uncut red topaz, bullseye lantern, cave goblin mining helmet, frog armour, iron bar, Dorgeshuun light orb, empty light orb	Dorgesh-Kaan	300 seconds
Rogue Chest	84	100	1,000 coins, 30 death runes, 30 Fire runes, 25 mind runes, 40 chaos runes, 6 sapphires, 5 emeralds, 1-3 diamonds, 10 Sharks, 20 pike, 15 raw tuna, 25 ashes, 10 iron, 13 coal, 3 tinderboxes, 2 cut dragonstone, Clue Scroll (Hard)	Rogue's Castle	~10 seconds

Doors

Certain doors in RuneScape can not be opened by players unless the lock is picked. In order to pick a lock, right-click on a door and select "Pick Lock". If the player has the required Thieving level, the door will then be opened. Some doors will require a lockpick to successfully pick the lock.

Pickable Doors

Door	Level	Exp.	Location
Door to 10 Coin Chest	1	3.8	East Ardougne; the door to the empty house east of the east Baker's Stall
Door to Nature Rune Chest	14	15	East Ardougne; the door to the empty house just east of the Gem Stall
Ardougne House Door	14	15	East Ardougne; the door to the house with the just south of the north bank
H.A.M. Trapdoor	17	4	East of Draynor
Axe Hut Door	32	25	Level 54 Wilderness
Ardougne Sewer Gate	32	25	Ardougne Sewers
Pirate Hall	39	35	Level 54 Wilderness
Chaos Druid Tower	46	37.5	North of Ardougne
Paladin Door	61	50	Ardougne Palace
Yanille Dungeon Door	82	50	Yanille

Other

Name	Level	Exp.	Possible Loot	Stun Time (seconds)	Stun Damage
Candle table north of altar in Entrana church	20	20	candle	1	1 - "A higher power smites you"

Training Strategies

• For levels 1-5, pickpocket men in Edgeville (3 coins/pick).
• For levels 5-21, steal cakes from the Baker's Stall in Ardougne.
• For levels 21-55, loot urns at the Pyramid Plunder minigame.
• For levels 55-91, pickpocket Bandits and Menaphites.
• For levels 91-99, return to Pyramid Plunder.
• For levels 15 and up pickpocketing H.A.M members can prove to be profitable because you can get clue scrolls while pickpocketing them; similarly, from level 38, pickpocketing master farmers provides a chance to collect valuable seeds.

Temporary boosts

Image	Name	Boost	Level to obtain/use	Notes
	Bandit's brew	1	None	None.
	Spring sq'irk juice	1	File:Thieving-icon.png 25	20% run energy boost.
	Autumn sq'irk juice	2	File:Thieving-icon.png 45	30% run energy boost.
	Summer sq'irk juice	3	File:Thieving-icon.png 65	40% run energy boost.
	Yellow spicy stew	-5 to +5	File:Cooking-icon.png 25	-5 and +5 are rare

Random Events

A player is trapped in a pillory.

There are four different random events that are specific to thieving.

• Watchman - A watchman may attempt to arrest a player and begin to attack him or her. This event has been discontinued.
• Poison Gas - When thieving from a chest, a poison cloud may appear, which will poison your character. This event has been discontinued.
• Pillory - It is possible that your character will be teleported to a pillory in Yanille, Varrock, or Seer's Village, where shapes must be matched in order to pick the lock and return to where your character was thieving. It is possible for players to throw food at the trapped player, although it wont do any damage.
• When picking pockets in the HAM Dungeon, it is possible to get slightly concussed from the blow (Higher Agility prevents this from happening as often). Get concussed 3 times, and you will be knocked out and thrown out of the dungeon.

Thieving Minigames

There are a number of minigames which are based on or include Thieving.

• Pyramid Plunder - the desert city Sophanem has a pyramid where you can thieve for artefacts. As you get further into the pyramid, higher Thieving is required but it brings increasing amounts of Thieving experience. One of the fastest methods to train Thieving.
• Blackjack - Another Thieving activity in the desert.
• Rogue's Den - Traverse a maze with Thieving and Agility obstacles. Modest experience. More interesting for thieves is to open the safes in the dungeon. Good for experience and for the gems that you obtain as loot.
• Sorceress's Garden - An interesting game where you dodge guards and try to get fruit. Requires patience, a bit of skill, and experience, but yields excellent experience. Has four levels each giving increased experience at levels 1, 25, 45, and 65. Bring empty beer glasses (can be obtained for free at the shelves in the sorcerer's house).

Quests rewarding Thieving experience

Quest	Required thieving level	Experience
Biohazard	None	1,250
Contact!	None	7,000
Creature of Fenkenstrain	25	1,000
Darkness of Hallowvale	22	6,000
Death to the Dorgeshuun	23	2,000
A Fairy Tale Part II	40	2,500
The Feud	30	15,000
Fight Arena	None	2,175
The Fremennik Trials	None	2812.4
The Giant Dwarf	14	1,500
The Golem	25	1,000
Grim Tales	58	6,000
The Hand in the Sand	17	1,000
Hazeel Cult	None	1,500
Icthlarin's Little Helper	None	4,500
Mourning's Ends Part I	50	25,000
Rat Catchers	None	4,500
Slug Menace	30	3,500
Spirits of the Elid	37	1,000
Tower of Life	None	500
Tribal Totem	21	1,775

Hiscores

As of 20 April 2019, there are 34,245 current members that have achieved level 99 in Thieving.

Trivia

• Thieving is one of the only skills that does not require any items for training.