There are several methods of training thieving, the majority of which are quite click-intensive and time-consuming. However, it is usually a profitable skill, as players are rewarded with a good number of coins for their efforts. Thieving enables players to pickpocket NPCs, and steal from market stalls and chests. As their thieving level rises, they unlock methods that give higher experience rates and rewards. If your goal is speed, this guide shows the best XP path from 1–99 with practical alternatives for profit and lower effort, all of which have been covered in this guide. 

Why Train Thieving?

• Required for many quests and diaries
• Extremely fast 99 compared to most skills
• Can generate solid profit at higher levels
• Useful for both mains and iron accounts
  
  

Useful Unlocks

Dodgy necklace

  Wearing the dodgy necklace gives the player a 25% chance of not being stunned and damaged when they fail to pickpocket an NPC. A dodgy necklace comes with 5 charges and breaks when it is empty. Wearing this necklace along with the completion of medium ardougne diary will give the player a 40% increase in experience rates when pickpocketing ardougne knights.

Gloves of Silence

  The Gloves of Silence is an alternative for players who have not completed the medium ardougne diary. It gives the player a 5% increased chance of success when pickpocketing NPCs. They can be made from 2 dark kebbits for 600 coins from the Fancy Clothes Store in Varrock.

Rogue Equipment

  The Rogue equipment is an untradeable set of armour that can be obtained from the rogue equipment crate, which can be obtained at a chance between 39.2% to 46.9% of successfully opening the safes at the end of the Rogues’ Den Minigame. The rogue equipment is quite useful when training thieving. When the full outfit is worn, it guarantees the player will pickpocket twice the loot from any NPC, but no additional thieving experience is awarded. 

	Rogue mask
	Rogue top
	Rogue gloves
	Rogue trousers
	Rogue boots

Ardougne Diary

  The completion of Ardougne diaries increases your chances of successfully pickpocketing different NPCs. Completing the Hard Ardougne diary increases your chance by 10% when pickpocketing NPCs in all of Gielenor while completion of the medium Ardougne gives the same bonus but only in Ardougne.

Fastest Methods of Training Thieving

Level 1–41 Questing

Several quests, which are short and have low requirements, reward players with thieving experience after they are completed. Players should do these quests to get the best thieving experience when starting. These quests include:

• Biohazard: It requires the completion of Plague City and rewards players with 1,250 thieving experience upon completion.
• Hazeel Cult: This has no requirement and rewards the player with 1,500 thieving experience.
• Fight Arena: This requires the ability to defeat level 44, 63, and 137 enemies, all can be safespotted. It rewards the player with 2,175 thieving experience
• Tower of Life: This requires 10 construction, and it is also quite easy to do. It rewards players with 500 thieving experience upon completion.
• Tribal Totem: this requires 21 thieving and offers 1,775 thieving experience.
• Queen of the thieves: This requires completion of the client of Kourend and 20 thieving. It rewards players with 2,000 thieving experience upon completion
• The Feud: this requires 30 thieving and offers 15,000  thieving experience.
  
  

Completion of these quests will give the player 24,200 thieving experience, taking them to 41 thieving from level 1.

Level 1-5 Pickpocketing Men and Women

Men and Women are found in various locations in OSRS. They can be pickpocketed to get thieving experience and coins. This method of training offers relatively low experience rates and should only be used between levels 1 and 5 if the player does not want to do the quests mentioned above.

Level 5-21 Stealing From Bakery Stalls

Similar to Fruit stalls, players only need to click the Bakery stall to steal cake or bread which they will be awarded thieving experience for, these items respawn quickly, making it a good location to get early thieving levels. It requires 5 thieving and players can get about 19, 200 experience per hour. When you reach level 20 next to these stalls, there is a silk stall, where you can earn more EXP per hour.

Level 26–35 Stealing from fruit stalls

Fruit stalls are one of the different types of stalls found in cities in OSRS. Stealing from the stalls offers the fastest experience at level 25 thieving. The best spot to do this is at the easternmost house in Hosidius, there are no guard dogs there, and it contains two fruit stalls that players can steal from at the same time to improve their experience rates.

Experience rates From Stealing from Fruit Stalls

  Players can get 42,000 experience per hour when stealing from both stalls or 34,000 experience if they steal from only one stall. It will take the player less than 2 hours to complete to go from level 26 to 49 thieving when getting these experience rates.

Levels 36–49 Chests in Aldarin Villas

Training Thieving by unlocking chests in the Aldarin is the quickest method available from level 36 to 45. Each successful attempt gives 200 Thieving experience, making it extremely efficient for early progression.

There is a chance of being caught and teleported outside after some fails, so bringing a lockpick is strongly recommended to reduce it. You can achieve approximately 50,000–60,000 XP per hour,

The chest located in the western villa is the most convenient to use, as it offers the shortest return path after being teleported out. At lower Thieving and Agility levels, frequent teleports can quickly drain run energy. Wearing Graceful, using stamina potions, or restoring energy through a player-owned house pool in Aldarin can significantly improve efficiency.

Loot from these chests includes uncut gems, herb seeds, medium clue scrolls, and blessed bone shards. The short run between attempts also provides useful downtime for activities such as fletching bolts or other skilling tasks.

Level 49–65 Stealing Artefacts

Stealing Artefacts is a thieving minigame that involves stealing artefacts from houses in the residential district of Port Piscarilius. To start, players must speak with Captain Khaled, which can be found on the eastern side of the city. 

There are six houses in the southwestern section of Port Piscarillius; an artefact can be found by picking a lock inside one of them. During the minigame, players are tasked with finding an artefact in a different house each time and delivering it to Captain Khaled while avoiding patrolman and patrolwoman 

scattered throughout the city; this can be accomplished by running to specific locations with good timing. If completed successfully, the player receives 40 times their current thieving level and 500-1,000 coins, but if they are caught, the artefact will be retrieved, and they will be thrown to a location outside the city.

Using this method past level 65 thieving is recommended for players looking for a less click-intensive training method. Players can also engage in other training methods like fletching or alching while using this method. Simply mentioning this method in this guide doesn't do it justice due to the immense number of different aspects to consider with this method. For a more detailed guide on Stealing Artefacts, please click here.

Requirements for Stealing Artefacts 

•   49 thieving
•   Lockpick: this is used to pick locks to find artefacts during the minigame.
  
  

Recommendations for Stealing Artefacts

•   Book of the Dead/Kharedst’s memoirs: this can be used to teleport to the fisher’s Flute to save time
•   Stamina potions and weight-reducing clothing: Both help to maintain run energy since a lot of running is required in this minigame
  
  

Experience rates From Stealing Artefacts

  When starting, players should expect lower experience rates than the ones below until they are good enough to not get caught by the guards. These experience rates assume the player is good at the minigame and has all the recommendations above.

	XP/HR
		55	140,000
60	150,000
65	160,000
70	170,000
75	180,000
80	189,000
85	200,000
90	205,000
95	215,500
99	225,000

Level 65-84 Blackjacking

Blackjacking is a term used to describe repeatedly pickpocketing and knocking out bandits in Pollivneach with a blackjack. This method offers high thieving experience rates, but it is also very click-intensive. Players need to lure the bandit into an empty house where there are no other bandits and then knock them while wielding a blackjack and pickpocket them twice; this needs to be timed correctly to be done successfully. Simply mentioning it in this guide doesn't do it justice due to the immense number of different aspects to consider with this method. For a more detailed guide on Blackjacking, please click here.

There is a chance that the player will fail to knock out the bandit, and he will start to attack them, the bandit’s attacks can be stopped by quickly attacking him when he says “I will kill you for that”. If not timed correctly, the bandit will continue to attack the player, and they need to leave the area or kill the bandit to stop his attacks.  If the player does not get caught, they will receive thieving experience every two ticks. 

RuneLite Menu Entry Swapper

To reduce the click intensity, players can use the menu entry swapper plugin to set the left click to pickpocket the NPC instead of talking to them. When this is done, players only need to right-click the bandit to knock them out, and they can left-click the bandit twice to pickpocket them while they are unconscious. 

Requirements for Blackjacking

•   The Feud quest
•   Level 45 thieving: Blackjacking can only be done to Bearded Pollnivnian bandits at this level. Players should blackjack level 56 Pollnivnian bandits at level 55 and Menaphite thugs at level 65 thieving.
•   Blackjack: there are several types of blackjacks. The Maple blackjack(o) is mainly used for blackjacking.
•   Saradomin brews: This should be used as food to allow the player to blackjack for extended periods without going to bank and comeback.
  
  

Experience rates when Blackjacking

When a player gets good at blackjacking, here are the experience rates they can expect:

Level 84–99 Stealing From the Rogues’ Castle chests

The Rogues’ castle can be found in levels 52–56 wilderness. Stealing from chests found within this castle offers the fastest thieving experience rates above level 84 thieving, but it is highly dangerous due to the risk of running into PKers or the Chaos Elemental that lurks close to the castle. There are three chests found in the castle, attempting to open them without level 84 thieving will lead to the player taking serious damage between 16 and 43. 1,000 to 40,000 coins can be found in the chests along with noted fish, ores, and noted cut dragonstones if it is opened successfully.

A knife is the only item required to do this method, however, players can bring other items that might be helpful, and they are willing to lose. The fastest method to get to the Rogues’ castle is through the Ardougne or Edgeville lever, players should pull this lever to get teleported deep into the wilderness and then slash the web north and walk to the Castle as shown below. Players should be careful of the Chaos Elemental on their way to the castle.

Chests can be found on the north wall of the castle, search for traps on the chest you find. If you do not search for traps and try to open the chest directly, you will take damage. Upon successfully unlocking the chest, the player is granted 701.7 thieving experience and the rogues will become aggressive and start to attack you, so ensure to use Protect from Melee before opening the chest.

Experience rates when Stealing from the Rogue’s Castle

•   Your experience rates depend on how often you get killed by PKers which is inevitable in the long run. Even while occasionally dying to PKers and banking the loot, players can get up to 270,000 experience per hour. Without banking the loot, the experience goes up to roughly 290,000 experience per hour.
  
  

Alternative thieving training methods

Level 21-99  Pyramid Plunder

The Pyramid Plunder is a thieving minigame that can be played in the Jalsavrah Pyramid in the city of Sophanem. It consists of eight rooms, each requiring different agility levels. The player has only five minutes to loot chests and urns in all rooms, provided they have the required agility level. Training through this method provides the fastest experience between levels 91 to 99 thieving outside the wilderness. 

Once you are in the pyramid, make sure to check all 4 sides of it to find the mummy, who is the one you can start with in the minigame.

To get the maximum experience rates while playing the Pyramid Plunder, you should only loot the following:

• All golden chests in all rooms including the last room
• Urns in the last room and second-to-last room if there is time
  
  

Requirements of the Pyramid Plunder

•   21 thieving
•   Started the Icthlarin’s Little Helper to get access to Keldagrim.
•   Food
  
  

Recommendations of the Pyramid Plunder

• The official world for the Pyramid Plunder is W493
• Finish Contact! To be able to bank at Sophanem Dungeon
• 43 prayer to prevent damage from mummies and scarab swarms.
• Antipoison
  
  

Level 55-99 Pickpocketing Knights of Ardougne

Pickpocketing knights of Ardougne is an easier alternative for training thieving. 

You can choose to do it alone (it requires more attention) or look for clan chats such as: splashworlds where they give the worlds where they splash the knight so that everyone else can spam click to a single place and not lose sight of it.

It involves spam-clicking on knights of Ardougne to pickpocket them continuously. Any of the knights of Ardougne should be lured into a location like the one below, or the player can hop worlds till they find a knight that is already in a good spot. Players will get coin pouches from pickpocketing the knights, which they need to open when it is full before they can continue to pickpocket them.

Requirements for Pickpocketing Knights of Ardougne

•   55 thieving
  
  

Recommendations for Pickpocketing Knights of Ardougne

•   Dodgy necklace: When a player equips a dodgy necklace, the player will get a 25% chance of not being stunned and damaged when they fail to pickpocket an NPC.
•   Completion of the medium Ardougne Dairy: This is highly recommended as it provides a 10% higher success rate of pickpocketing the knights of Ardougne.
•   Full rogue equipment: Wearing the full rogue equipment grants the wearer 100% additional loot when they pickpocket an NPC.
  
  

Experience rates when Pickpocketing Knights of Ardougne

  The experience rates below are only possible if the player has all the recommendations above. Players can expect to make 15,260,000 coins when wearing the full rogue equipment, but only half without it.

Levels 50–99: Stealing Valuables in Varlamore

Stealing valuables in Varlamore is a strong mid-to-high level Thieving method that offers a great balance between experience, profit, and experience. This activity involves looting valuables from various locations around the city and handing them in for consistent Thieving experience and coin rewards. The method is very relaxed and works especially well for players who want steady progress without constant clicking. This method is somewhat unusual and requires several steps to carry out, it is advisable to read Varlamore Thieving's guide before trying it.

The valuables you earn during your mischiefs can be sold to an NPC named Oriana

The activity scales well all the way to level 99, making it an excellent long-term training option. It is also friendly for ironman accounts thanks to the variety of useful resources obtained along the way. Profit remains consistent and can reach 100,000-200,000 GP per hour.

Requirements for Stealing Valuables in Varlamore

•   50 Thieving
•   Access to Varlamore
  
  

Experience Rates from Stealing Valuables in Varlamore

	XP/hour
50	72,000
60	80,000
70	93,000
80	95,000
90	100,000
99	105,000

Level 82–99 Pickpocketing Vyres

Pickpocketing Vyrewatch Sentinels in Darkmeyer is one of the most profitable Thieving methods in the game. Although the experience rates are not the the best compared to others, this method is extremely popular due to its valuable drops, like the Blood shard, which worth millions. Vyres are aggressive, so once positioned, players can continuously pickpocket with minimal movement.

For best results, players should wear the full Rogue outfit for doubled loot and use Dodgy necklaces together with the Shadow Veil spell to significantly reduce stun chance. Using Redemption prayer combined with a prayer regeneration potion allows for very long trips with almost no food usage, making the method efficient and cost-effective.

Requirements for Pickpocketing Vyres

•   82 Thieving
•   Completion of Sins of the Father
•   Access to Darkmeyer
•   Moderate combat stats recommended
  
  

Experience Rates from Pickpocketing Vyres

•   Players can achieve around 150,000–190,000 XP per hour, depending on focus and gear.
•   Profit can exceed 1–3 million GP per hour w/ Blood shard drops.
  
  

Level 85–99 Pickpocketing Elves 

Pickpocketing Elves in Prifddinas offers some of the best profit potential in Thieving, though it is one of the most frustrating methods due to the high stun rate. This method is best suited for players with high patience.

Using the Rogue outfit, Dodgy necklaces, Shadow Veil, and Redemption prayer greatly improves consistency. The main goal is to obtain Enhanced crystal teleport seeds, which can be exchanged for crystal shards and sold for significant profit.

Requirements for Pickpocketing Elves

•   Access to Prifddinas/lletya
•   85 Thieving
•   Completion of Song of the Elves
  
  

Experience Rates from Pickpocketing Elves

•   Players can expect around 120,000–160,000 XP per hour, depending on success rate.
•   Profit varies heavily but can reach 2–4 million GP per hour with rare drops.
  
  

Levels 94–99 Master Farmers

At level 94 Thieving, players with the Ardougne Hard Diary completed can pickpocket Master Farmers with 100% success, making this one of the most consistent and relaxed methods for finishing the skill. This is especially popular for ironman accounts due to the massive supply of seeds obtained.

The full Rogue outfit is highly recommended to double all loots.

Requirements for Master Farmers

•   94 Thieving
•   Completion of Ardougne Hard Diary
  
  

Experience Rates from Master Farmers

•   Experience rates sit around 140,000–170,000 XP per hour. 
•   Pofit can reach 1–2 million GP per hour depending on seed prices and luck.
  
  

Level 99+ TzHaar-Hur

After reaching level 99 Thieving, players can access TzHaar NPCs in Mor Ul Rek for extremely fast post-99 experience and respectable profit. This method is simple, repetitive, and very efficient for players trying to reach 200M Thieving XP.

Using the Rogue outfit and Dodgy necklaces maximizes both profit and consistency. The main income comes from Tokkul, which can be exchanged for valuable items.

Requirements for TzHaar-Hur

•   99 Thieving
•   Access to Mor Ul Rek
  
  

Experience Rates from TzHaar-Hur

•   Players can achieve up to 250,000+ XP per hour post-99 with stable profit through Tokkul trades.
  
  

Conclusion

Thieving is a great skill, especially for Ironman athletes and regular accounts looking to make money while training and reaching level 99. This is because all methods are profitable, regardless of which one you use. Obviously, some are more profitable than others, and some are faster than others. Ultimately, the decision of which method to use depends on your goals. It's recommended to vary your methods to avoid repetition during long skill sessions.