OSRS Thieving Money Making: A Full Guide To Pickpocketing

Stealing is a bad habit, and we all know that is not the correct way to make money in real life, but the tables turn when we talk about Old School RuneScape. It’s a practice that requires training and leveling up during the game; still, it represents a great way to get gold without using combat or other methods that require more dedication and time to get the same results. OSRS Thieving Money Making is an option for those who like to explore more about the game and get some coins in exchange for stealing chests from market stalls and pickpocketing non-playable characters. It’s time to grab your mask and go out to get some rewards by doing some thieving. 

OSRS Thieving Money Making: Equipment 

It’s not just going and putting your character's hand into a pocket. Thieving is a skill that needs some equipment to function in the best way possible. Of course, you need to be a Member, but with some good items, you can do wonderful things with money making. Here’s a list of items that will make OSRS Thieving Money Making worth the try: 

Ardougne Cloak 

You will get this cloak after completing every Ardougne diary. It grants players a 30% bonus chance of successfully thieving from the Ardougne stall. Players with the level 1 Ardougne Cloak will only get 10%, at level 2 an extra 10%, and at level 3 you will have the maximum percentage of successful thieving bonus while you are around Gielinor. You don’t have to equip this cloak to get the bonus effect. 

Gloves of Silence

A pair of gloves that will grant you a 5% failing reduction during pickpocketing. These Gloves of Silence can degrade, but you have the option to repair them. You will need to have a Hunter Level of 54 to wear them, and you can’t stack this bonus with the one in Ardougne Cloak, so you need to choose which one to use; it’s one or another, not both! 

Dodgy Necklace

This necklace will boost Thieving Money Making in OSRS, and when you equip this item, it will give you a 25% chance of not getting stunned and hit while you are pickpocketing any NPC. Not only that, the Dodgy necklace will grant immunity to being stunned for up to a minute, giving extra chances to speed up the rate of experience gain. It’s a must-have during your thieving adventures. 

Rogue Outfit

Every thief needs an outfit, and to find the right one for OSRS Thieving Money Making, you need to finish Rogue’s Den minigame. You will get a good-looking outfit, but you will also get a chance to double the loot when you pickpocket an NPC. This is a serious recommendation if you want to do some bad things while playing Old School RuneScape. 

Thieving Cape

A cape that will grant you an additional 10% chance of being successful during NPC pickpocketing. But that’s not all; this is a skill cape, and it will give you a +9 to all defensive stats and a +4 bonus to Prayer if it is trimmed. You can store this cape in the Cape Rack of the Costume Room. You can use the full cape and Thieving hood combination to complete the set, but this hood won’t grant any extra bonus or boost, so you can use just the cape if you like. 

OSRS Thieving Money Making: Quests

The path to being a great thief is hard, and to level up, you will need to complete several quests and training to reach the maximum level in-game. It can take some time to complete all the quests, but the XP reward from each of these quests will be worth the time invested. Here’s the list of quests you can complete to level up this skill:

• Tower of Life: 500 XP reward. Other requirements: 10 Construction level
• Creature of Fenkenstrain: 1,000 XP reward, 25 Thieving level requirement. Other requirements: 20 Crafting level.
• The Golem: 1,000 XP reward, 25 Thieving level requirement. Other requirements: 20 Crafting level.
• The Hand in the Sand: 1,000 XP reward, 17 Thieving level requirement. Other requirements: 49 Crafting level.
• Spirits of the Elid: 1,000 XP reward, 37 Thieving level requirement. Other requirements: 33 Magic, 37 Ranged, and 37 Mining levels.
• Biohazard: 1,250 XP reward
• The Giant Dwarf: 1,500 XP reward, 25 Thieving level requirement. Other requirements: 12 Crafting, 16 Firemaking, and 33 Magic levels.
• Hazeel Cult: 1,500 XP reward
• Tribal Totem: 1,775 XP reward, 21 Thieving level requirement. 
• Death of the Dorgeshuun: 2,000 XP reward, 23 Thieving level requirement. Other requirements: 23 Agility level.
• The Queen of Thieves: 2,000 XP reward, 20 Thieving level requirement. 
• Fight Arena: 2,175 XP reward. 
• Fairytale II - Cure a Queen: 2,500 XP reward, 40 Thieving level requirement. Other requirements: 49 Farming, and 57 Herblore levels.
• The Fremennik Trials: 2,812 XP reward. Other requirements: 25 Fletching, 40 Woodcutting, and 40 Crafting levels (if you craft your own lyre).
• The Slug Menace: 3,500 XP reward, 30 Thieving level requirement. 
• Icthlarin’s Little Helper: 4,500 XP reward. 
• Ratcatchers: 4,500 XP reward. 
• Darkness of Hallowvale: 6,000 XP reward, 22 Thieving level requirement. Other requirements: 5 Construction, 20 Mining, 26 Agility, 32 Crafting, 33 Magic, and 40 Strength levels.
• Grim Tales: 6,000 XP reward, 58 Thieving level requirement. Other requirements: 45 Farming, 52 Herblore, 59 Agility, and 71 Woodcutting levels.
• Contact!: 7,000 XP reward. 
• Dragon Slayer II: 15,000 XP reward, 60 Thieving level requirement. Other requirements: 200 Quest points, 75 Magic, 70 Smithing, 68 Mining, 62 Crafting, 60 Agility, 50 Construction, and 50 Hitpoints levels.
• The Feud: 15,000 XP reward, 30 Thieving level requirement. 
• Monkey Madness II: 15,000 XP reward, 55 Thieving level requirement. Other requirements: 69 Slayer, 70 Crafting, 60 Hunter, and 55 Agility levels.
• Mourning’s Ends Part I: 25,000 XP reward, 50 Thieving level requirement. Other requirements: 60 Ranged levels.

Best Ways of OSRS Money Making: Thieving

Starting right off, there are some ways to have a good profit while digging in others’ pockets and chests. For some of these methods of money-making, using Thieving will require a high level and a combination of items to get the rates. With all of this said, here are the methods you can use to make a decent profit with Thieving.  

Pickpocketing Elves

It is the most lucrative method in OSRS Thieving Money Making, but it requires having an 85 level to start digging into the Elves’ pockets. You can find elves in Prifddinas, and the main money source from this practice is the Enhanced Crystal Teleport Seed. You can expect a profit of 2.3 million gold per hour with 85 Thieving levels, but this amount can increase with a higher level and reach up to 3.35 million gold per hour. Likewise, you will also need to complete Ardougne Diary and Song of the Elves quests to be able to access this method. We recommend having the following items: 

• Dodgy Necklace 
• Food
• Thieving cape (if you have one)
• Shadow Veil spell (To avoid being stunned)

Pickpocketing Vyres 

For this method, you will be required to complete the Sins of the Father quest and have 82 levels of Thieving. Finding Vyres takes quick travel to Darkmeyer, and we recommend having a Gem bag because you will get some precious gems during your endeavors. You can expect a profit of 2.1 million gold per hour at level 82 of Thieving; however, you can expect an increase in profit up to 3.25 million gold per hour with a higher level of this skill. Moreover, this method requires some luck and patience because the main drop, Blood shard, takes about 3.3 hours, on average, to get you one; and there is no guarantee you’ll receive it in this time frame either.

Pickpocketing H.A.M members. 

This is a great way to get into OSRS Thieving Money Making since it requires only a level 15 in Thieving to begin pickpocketing female H.A.M. members and level 20 for male H.A.M. members. On average, your chances are 1 in 50 to get an Easy Clue Scroll. At those levels, you will have a high chance of failing during pickpocketing, and to drop these rates to zero, you will need to level up Thieving to level 93 and complete the Ardougne Hard Diary. Another way you won’t fail at pickpocketing H.A.M. members is to reach level 99 of Thieving and wear a Thieving cape.   

Pickpocketing takes 1.2 seconds, and once you finish, you will usually get an Easy Clue Scroll from H.A.M. members. You can complete the clue scroll in under 90 seconds once you have all teleports unlocked with easy access, too. The strategy you can follow for this method is to teleport to Draynor Villager using an Amulet of Glory, head to the hideout, get a clue scroll by pickpocketing, and complete the clue scroll. You can repeat this process by banking in Draynor Village. We recommend having a Dodgy Necklace for lower-level players. The general profit is around 1.05 million gold per hour. Here are some of the items you can get while pickpocketing H.A.M. members: 

• Gold Trimmed Monk Robes
• God Pages
• Trimmed Armor
• Clue Scrolls
• Cosmetic items. 

Pickpocketing Master Farmers

For this pickpocket mission, you have to be in Draynor Village, and you will get a great profit by using your hands to take the money from Master Farmers. This method is about getting seeds and has an average earning of about 850k to 1 million gold per hour. For better efficiency, you can look for Martin and wait until he is stuck inside the pig pen. Once you are done, you just have to drop all the worthless seeds and do it all over again. We recommend you bring with you the Rogue Outfit with a level 94 if you would rather not bring food during OSRS Thieving Money Making and a Seed box to store the seeds you will be pickpocketing. You have a good chance to get Ranarrs and Snapdragons seeds when using this method! 

Stealing Cave Goblin Wire 

If you don’t vibe with pickpocketing too much, you can steal the Cave Goblin Wire that is outside the furnace in Dorgesh-Kaan’s lower level. You can access this wire machine by heading to the southwest corner, then climbing the stairs there, and going down the stairs found on the next level. Once you are there, click the spool of wire and steal it. You have to wait 6 seconds for the wire to respawn. There’s a chance to get stunned, so bring a Dodgy Necklace and food to heal if necessary; we recommend bringing wine to save money since you don’t need any other skills to use this method. The average profit from stealing Cave Goblins wire is about 651k gold per hour. 

OSRS Thieving Money Making Tips & Tricks

Using Thieving as a money-making method in OSRS can be a high-profit alternative from other ways like Farming or less stressful like those that involve Combat. There are ways to be successful during OSRS Thieving Money Making, but the journey can take time and a lot of leveling up to master the skill. However, there are some basics you must know to begin using Thieving. 

One of the first things you have to do is to change in settings your NPC Attack Options and replace it with ‘Hidden’; with this simple change, you will have less conflict while pickpocketing because you won’t get the first option to attack the NPC when you use your left-click. Instead, you will see the option of pickpocketing, saving you from worthless fights during your thieving endeavors. 

There is only a short cooldown for pickpocketing in OSRS, you can carry out the action on NPCs once every 2 ticks (1.2 seconds). You don’t need to wait until the pickpocketing animation is finished before pickpocketing again since you will know it’s successful when you hear the item sound entering your inventory. Also, there will be an XP increase. Knowing this, you can even double your experience and profit per hour. 

Try to avoid eating while you are stunned since this will extend the waiting period before you can pickpocket again, thanks to the food’s attack delay. We recommend eating after a successful pickpocketing; this way, you avoid extending the stunning time and continue stealing. 

OSRS Thieving Money Making FAQ

At What Level Do I Stop Failing Pickpocketing?

The higher the level, the higher the chances of being successful at pickpocketing. For some NPCs, you will stop falling at level 95, like the elves; still, you can combine the skill level with items like Glove of Silence of Ardougne Cloak to reduce the chances of failing at pickpocketing. 

Can I Use Thieving Just For Pickpocketing? 

Thieving is more than just pickpocketing since this skill lets players get into chests, steal from stalls, and even open locks and closed doors. 

Do I Need an Item For Training Thieving? 

No, you don’t need any item for training this skill unless players are blackjacking. However, for normal Thieving training, players won’t need to have a specific item that will let them level up faster or similar. 

Thieving in OSRS: Money Making Machine 

We are at the end of our errands, so it’s time to come back home to count all the profit made with the OSRS Thieving Money Making method. Thank you for reading the article; we’re sure you will find more interesting topics in our blog section. However, this is not the end for those who want to grow their account; if you still need more money in-game, why not consider buying gold? Of course, don’t forget to compare gold prices before making your decision. See you next time!