There are many skills in OSRS, all of them are useful for your account progress. Some of them are F2P and others are P2P. Thieving is one of OSRS Pay-to-Play skills that can’t be trained without getting a RuneScape membership.

You can use Thieving to make money fast and we're going to teach you how to do just that on this OSRS Thieving Guide.

You will also need your thieving skills to complete certain OSRS quests. Unlocking traps and doors are mainly done by using Thieving, so having a high Thieving level helps you in various ways.

Thieving is so easy to train, but it is also so boring and requires you to be active almost all the time. Also, training this skill is so cheap and requires a very low amount of OSRS Gold.

In this article, we will be focusing on the fastest way to reach level 99 to gain your Thieving Cape.

Helpful Items For Training Thieving

Training your Thieving skill can be accelerated by using some OSRS items which give helpful bonuses such as increasing the pickpocketing success chance. Not all of them are necessary, it’s totally optional but you better obtain them as soon as possible.

These items are:

Ardougne Cloak 2 or 3
Gloves of Silence (if you don't have the Ardougne Cloak)
Dodgy Necklace
Rogue’s Gear (can only be useful if you aim to make money)

Ardougne Cloak can be obtained by finishing the Ardougne Medium Diary and it adds 10% pickpocket success rate which is applied only in Ardougne. You can also finish the Hard Diary to have this bonus everywhere in OSRS. You will also need level 38 Thieving to complete the Medium diary at least.

Rogue’s Gear is only useful if you are trying to earn money using your Thieving skill. It gives you double the loot you get while pickpocketing and you can obtain it through Rogue’s Den.

Dodgy Necklace is highly recommended while training Thieving via pickpocketing. You will have a 25% chance to not be stunned once you fail to pickpocket. This works for 10 times per Necklace.

Gloves of Silence is useful if you don't have the Ardougne Cloak or you only have a Thieving level below 38. It has a pickpocketing success rate of 5% which is applied everywhere on the map. This bonus cannot be stacked with the Ardougne Cloak, that’s why it is useless once you obtain the Ardougne Cloak, especially the 3rd one.

Old School RuneScape Thieving Quests

You can complete specific quests that help you to train your first few Thieving levels to level 20-25 right from level 1. Completing these quests is optional, but you will end up completing them to finish your quests list anyway. This means finishing them early is a win-win situation and won’t be a waste of your time.

Recommended OSRS Quests for Thieving Training :

Tower of life
Hazeel Cult
Fight Arena
Biohazard
The Tourist Trap

If you need help completing any of those quests, feel free to check our Questing Services.

OSRS Thieving Guide For Beginners

This section will tell you what you should do in training your thieving skill from the bottom level to level 99. As long as you know what to look for and do every level, you should be progressing faster than most OSRS players.

From Level 1 to 5 Thieving

First of all, to train your Thieving skill, you will need to hide your Attack option from the Controls tab to make it easier to pickpocket the NPCs.

osrs thieving training guide

The first 5 levels can be done easily by pickpocketing Men or Women NPCs. It is the best way to finish these levels quickly. There are many locations where you can find NPCs, so choose the best location for you and start pickpocketing them.

You can use the Gloves of silence in this case since your Thieving level is pretty low to use the Ardougne Cloak. The Dodgy Necklace will be also very useful to not get stunned so often.

Once you have 28 Coin Pouches you won’t be able to pickpocket Men and Women anymore and you will need to left-click the stack of pouches in your inventory before attempting to pickpocket again. You can expect 5~6K EXP/Hour by doing that.

thieving guide for osrs players

From Level 5 to 25 Thieving

Stealing from Baker’s Stalls is the quickest way to level 25 Thieving. You can find Baker’s Stalls in East Ardougne in the Ardougne Square. When you try to steal from these stalls, there is a chance that the Guards may attack you, so you will just have to kill them or to run away. You can also stand near the side of the stall, so you improve your chances of not getting caught.

Doing this for one hour will allow you to get 12K Thieving EXP and it can be more if you don’t store the stolen cakes. Stealing from the Silk Stalls after reaching level 20 is probably going to be slower, so we suggest that you stick to the Baker’s Stalls.

runescape thieving in stalls

From Level 25 to 45 Thieving

Stealing from the Hosidius Stalls (Fruit Stalls) is the best possible method to reach level 45 Thieving. You can find the Fruit Stall in the Hosidius House Square and there will be two dogs around it. You should lure those dogs and trap them inside any building to be able to gain the maximum Thieving EXP per hour.

Stealing from the Hosidius Stalls requires 15% favor in the Hosidius house. You should expect 40K EXP/Hour if you won’t store the stolen Fruits.

thieving guide for mapping your escape

From Level 45 to 55 Thieving

The quickest method to train your Thieving from 45 to 55 is by using Blackjacking. This can be unlocked by completing the Feud quest which also gives 15K Thieving EXP by completing it.

This method is so click-intensive but offers the best thieving EXP for these levels. At level 45, you will have to start Blackjacking the Bearded Bandits in Pollnivneach City.

This can be done by luring one of them inside any house to not be noticed by the other Bandits. You will have to knock him out once, pickpocket him twice and repeat.

If you fail to knock him out, you will have to either spam the Knock-out option to cancel his attempt to kill you or run away from the house and go back to knock him out again. Knocking them out requires you to have a Blackjack of any kind in your weapon slot. thieving inside homes in gielinor

Fill your whole inventory with food without any empty slot to prevent pickpocketing him without knocking him out first if you don’t care about money and want the best possible Thieving EXP. You will incur damage once you fail to knock the Bandit out, so using the food will be necessary.

There is a nearby Banknote Exchange Merchant so bringing a noted stack of wine is your best option. thieving skills in runescape

You should expect more than 50K Thieving EXP/Hour, and as much as 80K+ if you have fast fingers.

From Level 55 to 65 Thieving

Once you reach level 55 Thieving, you will be able to start Blackjacking the Non-bearded Bandits in Pollnivneach City. This can be done just like the Bearded Bandits method, as you just lure them inside any house to start knocking them out. Doing that will get you to level 65 very quickly but you may get your fingers broken.

You can expect 90K EXP/Hour and more than 120K if you have fast fingers. stealing runescape gold

Just like the non-bearded method, you should fill your inventory with food with 0 empty slots if you want the best EXP per hour with no OSRS Gold gain.

From Level 65 to 99 Thieving

Pickpocketing Ardougne Knights will be your best method to reach the max Thieving level which is level 99. This method is not AFK at all, you will need to keep clicking on the Ardougne Knight until you have 28 coin pouches. Using OSRS items while doing this will increase the EXP/Hour.

Items that should be used are the Ardougne Cloak and the Dodgy Necklace.

The Dodgy Necklace will help you to fail less often while pickpocketing the Ardougne Knight which also means taking less damage overall.

Hiding the Attack option is necessary at this point and will boost up the EXP/Hour dramatically.

To use this method, you will have to find one of the Ardougne Knights which is located at Ardougne Square in East Ardougne. Either lure one of them inside a house or switch to world 378 to find already trapped Knight inside the northern house.

Many players will be pickpocketing one Ardougne Knight in this world and all you have to do is join them. You will need food to heal up especially during the low Thieving levels.

getting runescape items via thieving

Try to set the camera where you can just keep clicking on the Knight all the time without moving your mouse around. Bring 5 or 6 Dodgy Necklace in your inventory so you can use a new Necklace upon destroying the already equipped one.

Traping the Knight inside can be done by attacking any Ardougne Knight around the area, let him follow you inside any house, and close the door.

After that, you should run a few tiles away from the Knight before starting to pickpocketing him.

running away after stealing from knights

By using this method you should get 70K to 230K Thieving EXP/Hour depending on your Thieving level. After leveling up to 95 the Knights won’t stun you again.

Final Thoughts About Thieving In OSRS

By following this OSRS thieving training guide, you can max your Thieving skill in the shortest possible time. The fact that you won’t be AFK for most of the time can be too much for some players and it's best to have a guide that you can follow.

Note: Remember to take a rest from time to time, it is just a game.

If you're short of OSRS GP, you can buy OSRS gold from us here at Probemas and we'll get your order delivered to you ASAP.

With hard work and patience, you should be able to get your Thieving Skill Cape soon.

Need further assistance in your journey in Gielinor? Feel free to join our Discord server and interact with thousands of avid RuneScape players like yourself. We also provide exclusive RuneScape giveaways for our members from time to time.

Related RuneScape Guides:


Last Updated: 12/28/2022

OSRS Thieving Guide | Training From Level 1 to 99