Thieving training

This guide describes the most effective methods to train the Thieving skill. The experience rate estimates in this guide do not incorporate the use of any experience-boosting items or bonus experience.

Thieving is a support skill that involves using techniques such as pickpocketing, coshing and lock picking to steal items and to gain access to restricted areas. As players level up the Thieving skill, they gain the ability to steal from NPCs and scenery objects, which award greater amounts of experience when they are successfully stolen from. Levelling up Thieving also decreases player's chance of failing Thieving activities where there is a chance of being unsuccessful.

Useful equipment and abilities

Safecracking and pickpocketing boosts

Item		Description
	Magpie	Summoning familiar which give a temporary boost of +2 levels to a player's Thieving level when using scroll. In addition, it grants an invisible +3 Thieving level boost at all times.
	Abyssal lurker	Summoning familiar which give a temporary boost of +4 levels to a player's Thieving level when using scroll.
	Black ibis outfit	Each piece of the outfit increases Thieving experience by 1%. Wearing a full set will give an extra 1% bonus experience, for 5% bonus experience in total. Items from the outfit can very rarely be found while looting urns and sarcophagi within the Pyramid Plunder minigame.
	Scripture of Elidinis	Periodically spawn a soul that when caught, grants experience on average to that of a small XP lamp. Experience awarded stacks additively with other generic experience boosts, including outfits. At level 99, this equates to roughly 100k experience per hour.

Safecracking boosts

Item		Description
	Loot bags	Upgrades the loot bag to carry more items.
	Master thief's lockpick	A master thief's lockpick that never breaks and which can be added to the tool belt.
	Master thief's stethoscope	A master thief's stethoscope which can be added to the tool belt.

Pickpocketing boosts

Item		Description
	Freedom	Freedom as a level 34 Defence ability that instantly breaks free of stuns, and therefore offers the opportunity to significantly decrease time spent in stun. However, it does not allow any thieving actions until the stun's original duration is over.
	Enhanced Excalibur	Heals 20% of total life points over 20 seconds and has a cooldown of 5 minutes and the Elite Enhanced Excalibur heals 40% of total life points over 40 seconds. It is only useful when pickpocketing targets that can damage the player.
	Ardougne cloak	Different tiers of the Ardougne cloak are awarded on completion of the easy, medium, hard and elite sets of Ardougne achievements. After an Ardougne cloak 3 or 4 is obtained, it increases the player's chance of success when pickpocketing NPCs anywhere in RuneScape.
	Featherfingered necklace	Gives player a chance to take no damage and avoid being stunned while pickpocketing. The necklace contains 10 charges and can be made by enchanting an opal necklace or bought from the Grand Exchange for 3,069 coins.
	Soul-in-a-box	Unlocked by completing Nomad's Elegy. It's a reusable item which can be activated to summon a distracting soul, which aids in pickpocketing. Each Distracting Soul costs 100 charges from the charge pack and lasts for 1 minute. It is currently unknown the exact effect the Distracting Soul has for pickpocketing.
	Gloves of silence	Increase players' success rate while pickpocketing by 5% while they are equipped. A Hunter level of at least 54 is needed in order to wear the gloves. Gloves of silence can be bought from the Grand Exchange for 17,824 coins each or created at the Fancy Clothes Store in Varrock from 2 dark kebbit furs for a cost of 600 coins. Gloves of silence are damaged each time that the player is unsuccessful in a pickpocketing attempt and they are destroyed after 62 failures if counted from when they are new. If a player has multiple gloves of silence then they will all display the same status when their condition is checked. However, if the gloves of silence currently being used do fall apart, then any other pairs that the player owns are reset to the "new" condition. The condition of the gloves is only relevant to the player owning them, and is not a property of the gloves themselves. Players with at least level 64 Crafting can restore their gloves of silence to "new" condition by using 1 dark kebbit fur, costing 367 coins, and thread, costing 22 coins, on the gloves.
	Crystal Mask	Unlocked upon completing The Light Within quest. Crystal Mask requires level 90 Magic and 7 earth, 6 fire, 5 body and 4 soul runes to cast. For 5 minutes after it is cast, Crystal Mask increases the player’s chance of pickpocketing successfully by 15% and gives a chance to not be stunned by NPCs who stun the player following a failed pickpocket attempt.
	Light Form	Enhances the effects of Seren-aligned spells while it is activated, to further increase their chance of pickpocketing successfully. Players will need to consume around 53 doses of prayer potion per hour, with level 99 Prayer, to maintain the prayer points required to keep Light Form activated. Use of prayer renewal potions can be used to help regain prayer points. Additionally, players can use Grace of the Elves to further cut Light Form's cost in half or 0 per minute with the Dark Facet of Grace enchantment unlocked. And with Holy scarab, it will reduce the prayer drain rate by 50% for 64 minutes.
	Trahaearn exoskeleton set	Reward upon completing the Plague's End quest. When wearing a complete set, players gain the following bonuses: 25% chance of avoiding being stunned and damaged following an unsuccessful pickpocketing attempt. If the player owns pieces of the black ibis outfit, then they will receive their increased base experience effects while wearing the exoskeleton set. If the player has at least level 75 Thieving and level 75 Hunter, then they will gain a 5% increased chance of success when pickpocketing with the exoskeleton bracers equipped (this effect is equivalent to that given by equipping gloves of silence, so it is recommended that players use the bracers instead of gloves of silence if they are able to do so).
	Camouflage outfits	Created through the Invention skill with camouflage fragments obtained through training Thieving. The desert camouflage outfit, Keldagrim camouflage outfit and Prifddinas camouflage outfit. When wearing a complete version of any of these three outfits, players gain the following bonuses: 5% chance of double pickpocketing. 5% chance to avoid being stunned when pickpocketing. If a player owns a black ibis outfit, they will receive its 5% increased base experience effect while wearing a camouflage outfit. If a player owns a Trahaearn exoskeleton set, they will receive its effects while wearing a camouflage outfit.
	Master camouflage outfit	Created by merging the desert camouflage outfit, Keldagrim camouflage outfit and Prifddinas camouflage outfit. 7% chance of double pickpocketing (as opposed to 5% with the other camouflage outfits). 7% chance to avoid being stunned when pickpocketing (as opposed to 5% with the other camouflage outfits). Teleports to Lletya, the Thieves' Guild, Pollnivneach, the Consortium in Keldagrim, Pyramid Plunder, and the Prifddinas clan districts (Iorwerth, Ithell, Cadarn, Amlodd, Trahaearn, Hefin, Crwys, and Meilyr). Increased chance of pickpocketing Seren's symbol pieces.
	Five-finger discount aura	Auras increase a player's chance of thieving successfully by 3% to 15% while activated, depending on aura tier. Auras effects last for one hour after they are activated. Players may use 5 or 10 vis wax to extend a five-finger discount aura's activation time by 50% or 100% (costing 117,725 coins or 235,450 coins). This effect must be applied before the aura is activated. Once a five finger discount aura has been used the player must wait 3 hours before using it again.
	Thieving cape	The Thieving cape is obtained at Thieving level 99 and notes almost all items obtained from pickpocketing, which can greatly reduce the need for banking items.
	Time engram	The time engram is an item used in the Memorial to Guthix Distraction and Diversion. It can be found outside Glarial's Tomb, under a bush just south of the entrance. Sempiternal Souvenirs is the benefit of this engram, while active pickpocketing has a chance to yield memory shards. Memory shards can be transmuted into Divine energy products.
	Ring of Fortune	You will always gain the effect of tier 3 luck.
	Luck of the Dwarves	You will always gain the effect of tier 4 luck.
	Sticky Fingers	Increases the rate of auto-pickpocketing by 50%. Requires 84 Archaeology.

Generic experience boosts

Most experience-boosting effects that apply to all skills also apply to Thieving. This includes but is not limited to the following boosts:

Item		Max XP increase	Description
	Clan Avatar XP boost	+6%	Grants a 3-6% experience boost after activating the skilling bonus at the Avatar Control Stone in a Clan Citadel.
	Premier artefact	+10%	Once per day, the premier artefact can be activated to gain a 10% experience boost for 60 minutes.
	Desert pantheon aura	+10%	The Wisdom of Scabaras effect of the Desert pantheon aura gives a 10% experience boost for 1 hour at the cost of 200 charges.
	Torstol incense sticks	+2%	Each potency level of torstol incense sticks provides a 0.5% experience boost. The potency level increases every 10 minutes, reaching its maximum at level 4 (+2% experience). Overloading consumes 6 sticks, instantly reaching maximum potency.
	Wise perk	+4%	Grants a 1-4% experience boost (based on perk rank) while wearing or wielding an item augmented with this perk, up to 50,000 additional experience per day.
	Wisdom auras	+2.5%	Grants a 2.5% experience boost for 30 to 90 minutes, depending on the aura's tier.
	Inspire relic powers	+2%	When harnessed, 2% extra experience is earned when training skills relevant to the specific Inspire relic.
	Advanced pulse core	+50%/+10%	Grants a 50% experience boost, exploding after experience equal to a medium prismatic lamp has been accumulated. After exploding, it provides a 2% (stacking up to 5 times for up to 10%) experience boost for 10 minutes.
	Sceptre of enchantment	+4%	Using a charge grants the wielder a 4% experience boost for 24 hours. Nearby players receive a 2% experience boost for 2 hours.
	Coin of enchantment	+2%	Using a charge grants the wielder a 2% experience boost for 24 hours. Nearby players receive a 1% experience boost for 2 hours.
	Rock of Resilience	+4%	Using a charge grants the user a 4% experience boost for 60 minutes. Nearby players receive a 2% experience instead.

Methods

Summary

Levels	Method	Experience per hour	Alternative methods
1-5	Pompous merchants	6,000
5-15	Bakery stalls	Up to 36,000 (with Vegetable Stalls and Eat Food)	You can train coshing starting at level 40 at the Thieves Guild by using a rubber blackjack on a coshing volunteer after completing The Feud quest. Experience is based on your thieving level, gaining 178.2 per tick at 99 Thieving.
15-62	Thieves' Guild Jail doors	61,000 (with level 15-35 Thieving) 83,500 (with level 35-41 Thieving) Up to 150,000 (with level 50+ Thieving)	Druid (Garden of Kharid) 42-62
62-76	Safecracking in Misthalin	Up to 300,000
76-83	Safecracking in Asgarnia	Up to 400,000
83-99+	Safecracking in Kandarin	Up to 575,000, or 950,000 (with hidden safes)	With level 83 Thieving, Crux Eqal knights can grant up to 830,000 base XP per hour while being AFK, but have several high-level requirements to comfortably achieve 100% success rate. With level 99+ Thieving and Sticky Fingers, bandits can be fully afk'd for over 350,000 experience an hour. You may opt to start training at elven clan workers with level 96 Thieving; this gives up to 373,000 experience an hour at level 99.

Levels 1-62

Levels 1-5: Pompous merchants

Players should begin their Thieving training by pickpocketing pompous merchants. Around 6,000 experience an hour can be gained from this method with level 1-5 Thieving. However, as only 388 experience is needed to achieve level 5 Thieving, players with no previous experience of the skill should achieve level 5 in approximately 4 minutes.

Pompous merchants are found in Taverley, just east of the lodestone. Players will gain a few coins each time that they successfully pickpocket a merchant but will lose some life points and be stunned for several seconds if their pickpocketing attempt is unsuccessful.

Levels 5-15: Bakery stalls

At level 5 Thieving players can begin stealing from bakery stalls to gain approximately 11,000 experience an hour. As only 2,300 experience is needed to reach level 15 Thieving it should take players around 11 minutes to reach level 15 Thieving. When stealing from stalls in general, players should stand on the opposite side of the bakery stall to any market guards or guards present in the area or they will attack the player when they attempt to steal. If not spotted, attempts to steal from the stalls are always successful and gives items depending on the type of stall. Each successful theft from bakery stalls will randomly yield bread, cake, or a chocolate slice. After an item has been stolen from the stall, the player must wait for the shop stall's stock to replenish before they can steal from the stall again (merely a couple of seconds for Bakery Stalls).

The best bakery stall location for training is in Lumbridge. It is very close to a bank chest and there is a spot where players can alternate between the Bakery Stall and Vegetable Stalls, resulting in faster experience than a Bakery Stall alone. The same can be said for Catherby's stalls although they are slightly further from a bank.

Levels 15-62: Thieves' Guild doors

With at least level 15 Thieving players should start training by opening doors in the practice chest area of the Thieves' Guild. To access this area of the Thieves' Guild the player must have completed the Buyers and Cellars quest. The practice chest area is located south-east of the main training room within the guild; it is composed of 6 jail cells containing practice chests. Players should train their Thieving by opening the jail cell doors within this area. Once a door has been opened it will remain open for around 5.5 minutes, so players should change worlds (using the "hop worlds" option in the options menu) to find a world where the doors are closed after having opened all the doors on their current world.

At level 15 Thieving, players will only be able to open the 3 doors on the northern side of the corridor for approximately 61,000 experience per hour. At level 35 Thieving, players will also be able to open the 3 doors on the southern side of the corridor. A lockpick is required in order to open the doors on the southern side of the corridor. By rotating clockwise around the room, players can open doors efficiently (the doors impede counterclockwise movement when open). Opening all six doors also reduces time spent switching worlds. Using this method, players will gain 83,500-150,000 experience per hour, depending on thieving level.

The time interval between each lockpick attempt is 1 second, although casual players may choose to miss the precise timing and re-attempt at earliest 1 second longer than possible. Player may queue up the next lockpick attempt as their character animation is reaching for the door. When done efficiently, each door will have at least two click attempt interaction, the first, and the second queue which may be cancelled if the first attempt succeed. When queued correctly, a player may attempt 1 lockpick per second.

Note for Ironmen

For Ironman Mode players, purchasing a lockpick from Dodgy Derek's Dirty Deals requires a minimum of 41 Thieving for the completion of Lost Her Marbles to access the shop in the Thieves' Guild which supplies them. An alternative is purchasing from Martin Thwait's Lost and Found in the Rogues' Den with 50 Thieving and Agility, or to obtain with 22 Hunter to catch Young implings which have a common chance of dropping a lockpick once looted. You can also use the hair clip from the King's Ransom quest.

Safecracking (62-99)

Overview

At level 62 Thieving, and with the Thieves' Guild capers completed, players can begin safecracking.

First, players should speak to the safe-cracking trainer in the Thieves' Guild if they haven't already to receive a stethoscope and a small loot bag (requires completion of A Guild of Our Own (miniquest)), and then begin looting from chests in Misthalin.

When your loot bag is full, turn it in to Chief Thief Robin at the Thieves' Guild for even more experience.

Safecracking provides between 300,000 experience an hour at level 62, to 500,000 experience per hour at level 90.

Levels 62-76: Safecracking in Misthalin

Misthalin Safes

• 
  Upstairs
• 
  Downstairs

This can provide up to 300,000 experience an hour.

• Clicking on the safes when they flash blue (for quicker experience), the player can gain up to 400,000 experience an hour.
• You need to make a round of many of these locations, as a safe once cracked cannot be cracked again for 5 minutes.
• Hop between locations and keep cracking safes for maximum XP, rather than waiting at an opened safe for it to close.

Location	Room	Safes	Getting there
Edgeville	General store, upstairs	1	Wilderness sword 1 Edgeville teleport, run to general store, climb ladder
Wizard tower	2nd floor[UK]3rd floor[US] small northeast room	1	Wicked hood guild teleport, descend 1 floor, run to small northeast room, safe is in south-west corner
Wizard tower	2nd floor[UK]3rd floor[US] small southwest room	1	Run across to the room on the opposite side of the tower (immediately west of the portal), safe is in north-east corner
Lumbridge	House south of tree patch, upstairs	1	Lumbridge teleport, run north of the lodestone into the house, climb stairs
Lumbridge	Bob's Brilliant Axes, upstairs	1	Leave the house, run south to Bob's, climb stairs
Draynor	Draynor Manor, ground floor	2	Draynor lodestone, or exit War's Retreat, run north to Manor, enter west room
Draynor	Wise Old Man's house, upstairs	1	Draynor lodestone, or exit War's Retreat (run south to Wise Old Man's, climb stairs), or master archaeologist's outfit to teleport to Wise Old Man directly.
Varrock	Palace rooftop treasury (requires 65 and a lockpick or hair clip)	3	Ring of Fortune Grand Exchange teleport, up main palace stairs, up south east ladder, exit and run to south west tower, pick door lock
Al Kharid	1st floor[UK]2nd floor[US] of Zeke's scimitar shop west of the lodestone (requires 69 )	1	Al Kharid teleport
Al Kharid	ground floor[UK]1st floor[US] of the house directly north of the lodestone (requires 69 )	1	Al Kharid teleport
Pollnivneach	Hakeem the Mayor's house (requires 69 )	2	Master Camouflage outfit, Pollnivneach Teleport, or Pollnivneach tablet (after Love Story)

Levels 76-83: Safecracking in Asgarnia

Asgarnia Safes

• 
  Upstairs
• 
  Downstairs

At level 76 Thieving, players should continue to crack safes, moving to Asgarnia.

The most efficient safes to loot are the two in the Black Knights' Fortress (assuming the player owns the Skull of Remembrance for fast teleportation – climb down the staircase and the two safes are in the treasure room west), then the two on the roof of Burthorpe Castle in the equipment room, and finally the two in Port Sarim above the jewellery store and forge. Depending on how attentive you choose to be, you may find that only the first four safes are enough for a 5-minute rotation.

This can provide up to 400,000 experience an hour. Clicking on the safes when they flash blue (for quicker experience), the player can gain up to 500,000 experience an hour.

If the Skull of Remembrance is not an option, you should fill out your rotation with some of the four safes in Falador. Using the Mining Guild resource dungeon teleport on a Hoardstalker Ring or Dungeoneering Cape and climbing the ladders will bring you the closest to the Falador safes. The Arc Journal can teleport the player to Quartermaster Gully in Port Sarim, which is close to the Port Sarim safes and requires no charges.

Location	Room	Safes	Getting there
Black Knights' Fortress	2nd floor[UK]3rd floor[US] treasure room	2	Skull of Remembrance climb down stairs, run west to the treasure room
Burthorpe Castle	2nd floor[UK]3rd floor[US] (roof), building in the middle	2	Burthorpe lodestone, run north and up to the roof
Falador Park	House far east, ground floor[UK]1st floor[US]	1	Falador lodestone, run east when inside falador
Falador	1st floor[UK]2nd floor[US] of the western house of the 3 directly north of Artisans' Workshop	1	Falador lodestone, run south-east
Falador	2nd floor[UK]3rd floor[US] of the southern house of the 3 directly north of Artisans' Workshop	1	Falador lodestone, run south-east
Falador	1st floor[UK]2nd floor[US], of the southern part of the Mining Guild building	1	Falador lodestone, run south-east
Port Sarim	Grum's Gold Exchange, 1st floor[UK]2nd floor[US]	1	Arc journal, run west and upstairs Port Sarim lodestone, run north and upstairs
Port Sarim	Brian's Battleaxe Bazaar, 1st floor[UK]2nd floor[US]	1	Arc journal, run west and upstairs Port Sarim lodestone, run north and upstairs

Levels 83-99+: Safecracking in Kandarin

Kandarin Safes

• 
  Upstairs
• 
  Downstairs

At level 83 Thieving, players should continue to crack safes, moving to Kandarin.

Optimal speed Kandarin Safecracking procedure:

1. Teleport to Camelot using spell; loot both safes on ground floor of Camelot Castle
2. Teleport to Ardougne using spell; loot both upper floor building safes surrounding Ardougne market. Skip Ardougne castle safes.
3. Teleport to Yanille using lodestone; loot ground-floor safe south of lodestone, and the upper-floor safe in the pub to the east.
4. Repeat.

This can provide up to 500,000 experience an hour. Clicking on the safes when they flash blue (for quicker experience), the player can gain up to 600,000 experience an hour.

A route that encompasses all safes, which is not quite as fast as the above (due to time taken to travel to Ardougne Castle on foot), is as follows: start by casting the Ardougne teleport spell and then loot the safes upstairs in the two buildings in Ardougne Market, then loot the two safes in Ardougne Castle, loot the safe in Jimmy Dazzler's house northwest of Ardougne Castle, teleport to the Yanille lodestone and loot the two safes within the wall and in the pub, then teleport to Camelot and loot the two safes on the ground floor^[UK]1^st floor^[US] of the castle. This can provide up to 575,000 experience an hour. However, typically cracking 4 safes will take about 5 minutes similar to Asgarnian ones, so a number of safes can be skipped (see optimal procedure above). A less expensive way is to teleport to Seer's Village and loot from the 2 safes in Camelot, teleport to Yanille lodestone and loot the safe inside the wall, and finally the safe at the 1^st floor^[UK]2^nd floor^[US] of the pub.

Levels 90-99+: Safecracking hidden safes

At level 90 Thieving, players should incorporate hidden safes into their route, most notably the safes in the Rogues' Castle in the Wilderness. This is up to around 950,000 experience per hour if the player has completed the hard Wilderness achievements. Staying at the Rogue's Castle safes and pickpocketing rogue captains during safe cooldown provides around 500,000 experience per hour. Bringing an Enhanced Excalibur negates the need to bring food to heal from pickpocketing stuns.

Location		Room	Safes	Levels	Requirements	Map
	Zemouregal's fort	Southeastern room on the ground floor[UK]1st floor[US].	4	90, 92, 94, 96	Completion of Curse of Arrav is required, and Dishonour among Thieves must be at least partially completed to access the hidden safe room. Ritual of the Mahjarrat completion is highly recommended for complete access to Glacor Cave for transportation. Players with a Quest Cape or master quest cape can quickly teleport here using option 5 (Glacor Cavern).
	Rogues' Castle	1st floor[UK]2nd floor[US] of the Rogues' Castle, in the eastern room.	3	90	None, however, completion of the hard Wilderness achievements is recommended to be able to choose Wilderness Obelisk teleport destination. Obelisk shards or a portable obelisk are recommended for quick transport. Alternatively, the Edgeville lever teleport can be used to travel to the Deserted Keep; the Rogues' Castle is to the east.
	Zanaris	East Zanaris marketplace, in the northwestern and southwestern houses.	2	90, 94	Completion of Lost City is required. Fairy rings or a Slayer cape are recommended for fast teleporting.

This provides 950,000 base experience per hour. For faster trips, Double Surge and Dive or Bladed Dive are helpful for getting around faster. The skeleton at Zemouregal's fort and rogues in their castle can often be Barged as another movement ability. The Slayer cape teleport to Chaeldar is a closer teleport to the Zanaris safes than the fairy ring. The Quest Cape teleport is closer to the Glacor Cave exit than DKQ, but this is a very high requirement.

Instead of bringing a portable fairy ring, which has limited charges, players can also bring a cape of legends, which is an unlimited teleport that is very close to a fairy ring. Another alternative for players who are maxed is to set their Max guild Teleport to the garden, and then use a skill portal that is attuned to the fairy ring.

Bringing some Thieves' Guild teleport tablets will allow players to quick empty their loot bag without losing much XP. With the medium loot bag, the bag will be filled roughly every two cycles.

The Wilderness safes are prioritised because they give the most experience. The safes in the Wilderness and in Zemouregal's fort have a cooldown of 10 minutes, as opposed to the usual 5 minutes of other safes. Zanaris and Camelot are included to fill out the rotation because all of the special safes would otherwise still be on cooldown. With this, the Wilderness safes and the Zemouregal's fort's safes should be looted every 10 minutes.

Optimal hidden safes route

Items required: obelisk shards or portable obelisk; portable fairy rings, Slayer cape, or quick access to a fairy ring; Camelot Teleport runes or tablets or a cape of legends Items recommended: Mobile perk for Surge and either Dive or Bladed Dive With 92 or higher Thieving, Abyssal Lurker scrolls can be used to get a +4 boost that will allow the player to loot all four safes in Zemouregal's fort.

1. Operate the portable obelisk (or obelisk shard) to teleport you to Level 50 Wilderness (otherwise use the Wilderness Crater lodestone to access the obelisk). Choose option 6 to teleport to level 50 Wilderness. Go inside Rogues' Castle to loot the three safes upstairs.
2. Teleport to Zanaris by using Slayer cape (to teleport to Chaeldar), portable fairy ring or with grace of the elves; loot both safes in the eastern market area.
3. Teleport to Camelot; loot both safes on ground floor^[UK]1^st floor^[US] of the castle.
4. Teleport to Glacor Cave (DKQ). Go north out of the cave, west to Zemouregal's fort, and loot the 4 safes.
5. Repeat. One cycle takes around 10 minutes.

Alternative methods

Levels 42-83 / 93-96+: Crux Eqal Druids

With at least level 42 Thieving, players can start pickpocketing Crux Eqal Druids at the Garden of Kharid. With a sufficiently high enough success rate, the player should expect 116,000 experience per hour with Auto-Pickpocketing and 200,000 experience per hour with an active playstyle.

At level 96 thieving the players have 100% success-rate with Trahaearn exoskeleton set and Ardougne cloak 3, they can therefore AFK these from level 93 with magpie and exoskeleton set. From at least level 98, you can AFK them with master camouflage outfit, which gives more loot.

Various boosts may be utilised to increase the success rate to 100% including: Five-finger discount aura, Crystal Mask, Light Form prayer, master camouflage outfit, Ardougne cloak 3, and the abyssal lurker's special for a +4 Thieving boost.

Super prayer renewal potions, grace of the elves and the ancient elven ritual shard can help keep prayer drain down.

Levels 46+: Menaphite marketeer

Menaphite marketeers yield lower experience per pickpocket, but they have an unusually low failure rate (0% with the legendary five-finger discount aura), further lowered by tier 8 Merchant reputation; with it and gloves of silence, 100% success rate is reached at 57 Thieving. The tier 8 Merchant reputation can be skipped entirely with the master five-finger discount aura and the gloves of silence, allowing you to AFK at 57 Thieving as well for those without the reputation requirement of this method. This makes it one of the most AFK activities possible (all you need to do is click once every 10-15 minutes to prevent lobbying), with lower requirements than other options. With 100% success rate, players can expect 60,000 exp an hour.

Levels 83-99+: Crux Eqal Knights

With at least level 83 Thieving, players can start pickpocketing Crux Eqal Knights at the Garden of Kharid. With 100% success rate, players can expect 555,000 base experience per hour. This increases to up to 832,500 base experience per hour with the Sticky Fingers relic power.

Players are able to achieve a 100% success rate with pickpocketing the knights, by using the legendary five-finger discount aura, Crystal Mask spell, Light Form prayer, the Trahaearn exoskeleton set, and having at least the Ardougne cloak 3 unlocked. They can wear the full master camouflage outfit instead, provided that they own the Trahaearn exoskeleton set, or have a pair of gloves of silence in their bank. Wearing the exoskeleton set or gloves of silence, however, frees up the boots slot for silverhawk boots.

Using the Abyssal Lurker's special scroll for a +4 Thieving boost or the Magpie's +3 Thieving invisible boost may be preferred if not using an aura.

Super prayer renewal potions, Grace of the elves, Dark Facet of Grace and the ancient elven ritual shard can help reduce prayer drain. The holy scarab familiar reduces prayer drain by half and is also useful to reduce prayer drain. It is highly recommended to have the Sticky Fingers relic active to effectively increase the experience rates by 50%.

Levels 96-99+: Elven clan workers

Players who are unable to use Crystal Mask should begin training at Elven clan workers at around level 96 Thieving. Eight different types of elven clan workers are found in Prifddinas; with each clan's district containing a different kind of worker. Completion of the Plague's End quest is required in order to access Prifddinas.

The Thieving level required to pickpocket from an elven clan worker varies, depending on the clan that the worker belongs to. As it typically takes around 4 minutes to reach 3/3 strikes for a particular clan (5–6 minutes with Crystal Mask), it is recommended to pickpocket workers when the player can pickpocket from four clans at any given time. Boosts can be used to pickpocket elves, and it is possible to start pickpocketing them at level 90 Thieving as long as Crystal Mask is being used.

level	Worker type	Thieving XP (with Voice of Seren)	Clan symbol
98	Meilyr worker	170 (204)
97	Crwys worker	155 (186)
96	Hefin worker	150 (180)
95	Trahaearn worker	145 (174)
94	Amlodd worker	140 (168)
93	Cadarn worker	135 (162)
92	Ithell worker	130 (156)
91	Iorwerth worker	125 (150)

Elven clan workers follow a different pickpocketing mechanic compared to many other pickpocket targets in RuneScape; when failing a pickpocket, you are not damaged. Instead, there are three "strikes". During the first two strikes, the player's chances of getting caught will increase drastically. A will appear over the pickpocketed worker, and will persist for a short period of time; the worker cannot be pickpocketed from again until this icon disappears. When the third strike occurs, all workers of that clan will be on alert and cannot be pickpocketed for 20 minutes.

Having an active Totem of crystal in Anachronia will reduce the cooldown for a given clan to 15 minutes. An elf thieving reset token can be purchased for 200 pilfer points from Dodgy Derek in the Thieves Guild in Lumbridge. This will reset the 20 minute timer preventing you from pickpocketing Elven clan workers.

It is possible to gain around 373,000 experience an hour by pickpocketing from elven clan workers while wearing a Trahaearn exoskeleton set at level 99 Thieving (with Meilyr and Ithell clans being affected by the Voice of Seren). The amount of experience that can be gained per hour while pickpocketing elven clan workers depends on which clans are currently affected by the Voice of Seren, as well as the player's ability to access clans which give a greater amount of Thieving experience upon successful pickpocket. A Thieving cape can completely remove the need to bank unless doing Amlodd workers, however it is not required as there are Bank chests all over Prifddinas.

To gain the most Thieving experience per hour players should prioritise thieving from elven clan workers within the 2 districts that are currently affected by the Voice of Seren as often as possible, as base experience obtained from pickpocketing clan's workers is increased by 20% while the Voice of Seren is active. In between stealing from these clans, the player should steal from the other clans that they are able to access in order of descending level requirement, as elven clan workers with a higher Thieving level requirement award more Thieving experience per successful pickpocket. Crystal teleport seeds can be useful for teleporting between districts.

A good route for Ironman players with level 99 Thieving is to rotate Meilyr, Hefin, Amlodd, Cadarn and Iorwerth clans, as this yields many useful items for Ironman accounts such as doses of Super attack, Super strength, Super defence, Super ranging potion, Super magic potion, Super energy potion, and Sign of the porter IVs, as well as various useful herblore supplies like Crushed nest and Dragon scale dust.

Level 99+: AFKing bandits

Players who are looking to AFK Thieving past level 99 can consider training on bandits at the Kharidian Desert Bandit Camp, north of Bandit Camp lodestone. Wearing the Thieving cape automatically notes loot from pickpocketing, preventing the inventory from getting full and interrupting the pickpocketing action.

Sticky Fingers allows the player to pickpocket the NPC with a 50% increased speed, effectively increasing the experience rates by 50%.

The player will be able to make a small amount of profit over time, due to the bandits giving the player lockpicks, antipoison(1), and 30 gp; having access to the master camouflage outfit can substantially increase profit per hour.

Having access to the shadow-touched training set will allow the player to increase the experience per hour even further, albeit offering a less laid-back experience. The player can gain roughly 350,000 experience an hour by AFKing these bandits.

For 100% successful pickpocket chance, the player can use the Trahaearn exoskeleton set or Master camouflage outfit with the completion of Plague's End for the Master camouflage outfit and the exoskeleton bracers to inherit the gloves of silence's effect without needing the gloves of silence, and obtaining at least Ardougne cloak 3 or using the highest tier Five-finger discount aura available to the player.

Balthazar Beauregard's Big Top Bonanza

A player performing the water tank escape trick.

Players can do a Thieving performance at the Circus Distraction and Diversion once per week if they have completed the Some Like It Cold quest. To enter the circus the player must gain a circus ticket from the ticket vendor, which is randomly located in one of 12 possible locations each week. Players can start their Thieving performance by standing on the star next to Teddy.

During the performance players have 5 attempts to perform up to 5 different tricks. Thieving experience is received upon the first successful attempt of each trick that the player performs: repeating a trick more than once does not grant additional experience. Each trick has a recommended Thieving level to attempt; however this level is not required in order to perform the trick, as it is possible to successfully perform or fail to perform a trick at any Thieving level. It may take several attempts for a trick is successfully performed. However, when a player performs a trick that has a higher recommended Thieving level than they currently have, the experience received will be the same as that given for performing a trick with half the recommended Thieving level, rounded down.

To gain the most experience from the Thieving performance players should begin by performing the highest recommended level trick for their current Thieving level, and work down to the trick with a recommended level half of their current Thieving level. After this players should perform any tricks with a recommended Thieving level which is greater than their current Thieving level and then finally perform any tricks with a recommended level of less than half of their current Thieving level. The Distraction and Diversion's interface will display the recommended Thieving level for the performance's tricks, as well as show which tricks the player has performed successfully. Players can receive a total of 14,260 experience, in about 45 seconds, if they successfully perform all 5 tricks with level 90 Thieving or higher. With completion of the Back to the Freezer quest players may gain up to 1.5 times as much experience from each trick, at level 99.

Name of trick	Recommended Thieving level	Experience
Pretend Levitate	50	2,206
Card Trick	60	2,647
Flowers from Sleeves	70	2,794
Rabbit from Hat	80	3,088
Water Tank	90	3,525

Quests for Thieving experience

Main article: Quests/Experience rewards § Thieving

Quest	Members	XP reward	Thieving requirement	Other requirements
Damage Control (miniquest)		Medium Thieving XP lamp	N/A	N/A
Dimension of Disaster: Shield of Arrav		100	N/A	N/A
Let Them Eat Pie		150	N/A	N/A
Stolen Hearts		250	N/A	N/A
Diamond in the Rough		250	N/A	N/A
Perils of Ice Mountain		500	5	5 Farming 5 Hunter 5 Construction
Tower of Life		500	N/A	10 Construction
The Jack of Spades		500	N/A	N/A
Buyers and Cellars		525	5	N/A
Creature of Fenkenstrain		1,000	25	20 Crafting
From Tiny Acorns (miniquest)		1,000	24	N/A
The Golem		1,000	25	20 Crafting
The Hand in the Sand		1,000	17	49 Crafting
Heartstealer		2,500	20	N/A
Spirits of the Elid		1,000	37	33 Magic 37 Ranged 37 Mining
Biohazard		1,250	N/A	N/A
Dishonour among Thieves		1,500	30	30 Agility
The Giant Dwarf		1,500	14	12 Crafting 16 Firemaking 33 Magic
Hazeel Cult		1,500	N/A	N/A
Tribal Totem		1,775	21	N/A
Death to the Dorgeshuun		2,000	23	23 Agility
Hunt for Red Raktuber		2,000	38	45 Construction 45 Hunter
Fight Arena		2,175	N/A	N/A
A Fairy Tale II - Cure a Queen		2,500	40	49 Farming 57 Herblore
Carnillean Rising		2,500	33	31 Construction
The Fremennik Trials		2,812	N/A	40 Crafting 25 Fletching 40 Woodcutting
Land of the Goblins		3,000	36	30 Prayer 36 Agility 36 Fishing 37 Herblore
The Slug Menace		3,500	30	30 Crafting 30 Runecrafting 30 Slayer
Icthlarin's Little Helper		4,500	N/A	N/A
Rat Catchers		4,500	N/A	N/A
A Void Dance		5,000	54	46 Hunter 47 Construction 47 Mining 48 Summoning 49 Herblore 52 Woodcutting
The Path of Glouphrie		5,000	56	60 Strength 56 Slayer 47 Ranged 45 Agility
The Darkness of Hallowvale		6,000	22	5 Construction 20 Mining 26 Agility 32 Crafting 33 Magic 40 Strength
Grim Tales		6,000	58	45 Farming 52 Herblore 59 Agility 71 Woodcutting
Contact!		7,000	N/A	N/A
Dealing with Scabaras		7,000	60	21 Firemaking 50 Agility 60 Strength
Deadliest Catch		8,000	70	3 Herblore 67 Hunter 70 Fishing
Lost Her Marbles (miniquest)		9,800	41	N/A
Dimension of Disaster: Defender of Varrock		10,000	42	N/A
Some Like It Cold		10,000	50	65 Fishing 56 Crafting 50 Construction
A Fairy Tale III - Battle at Ork's Rift		11,000	51	59 Magic 54 Farming 37 Summoning 36 Crafting
The Curse of Arrav		14,000	66	37 Slayer 41 Summoning 61 Agility 64 Ranged 64 Strength 64 Mining
Dimension of Disaster: Curse of Arrav		14,000	66	61 Agility 64 Strength 64 Ranged
The Feud		15,000	30	N/A
A Clockwork Syringe		18,000	74	50 Dungeoneering 61 Slayer 62 Construction 65 Summoning 74 Smithing 76 Defence
The Chosen Commander		20,000	46	46 Agility 46 Strength
Mourning's End Part I		25,000	50	60 Ranged
Rocking Out		25,000	63	60 Agility 66 Crafting 69 Smithing
A Guild of Our Own (miniquest)		30,000	62	40 Agility 46 Herblore
Do No Evil		50,000	70	50 Ranged 64 Construction 68 Crafting 70 Magic
Pieces of Hate		50,000	85	81 Construction 82 Firemaking 83 Agility
The Prisoner of Glouphrie		60,000	64	64 Agility 61 Runecrafting 62 Construction
Total		453,087

Money-making using the Thieving skill

Thieving money making guides

Method	Profit	Levels	Experience	Members
Pickpocketing elven workers	661,000	93  80  90  recommended 62  recommended	200,000
Stealing cave goblin wire	1,797,000	44	7,392
Stealing from vegetable stalls	1,635,000	2	14,000
Pickpocketing crux eqal knights	1,321,000	83  96  recommended 90  80	540,000
Pickpocketing paladins	1,263,000	70	455,400