lol its becuase you ARE the only thief on that shard haha. i played a thief on chessy for a month or two and felt the same way. Reaper, if you want to really be able to enjoy being a thief (without the tram claustrophobia) come to Siege and steal to your hearts content lol. as far as template, it pretty much depends on what shard you go to. if you are on prodo, you can work out a template with 800+ skill points because of your suit (chessy i had a fencer thug thief). on siege i run this template for high success/survival rate lol. 115 magery (for gating around and so i can equip a mage weapon when i need to take someone out), 120 stealing (real), 100 snoop, 100 hiding, 75 stealth (because thats all you need to stealth 100% in leather), 110 (maybe 105) ninja for no fail llama form, and 100 resist (for 40 resists when naked). I run this guy around wearing nothing but a blessed robe,sandals, ninja belt, bandana, and ill throw on some arcane gloves for casting so i dont need lrc or regs. this way, when i do fail, or die, i only lose out on about 500gp worth of arcane gloves. as far as noob tricks and tips, you can get ALOT of information just by reading the UOTHIEF.com stories. the best advise for a new this is, dont give up! it sucks ass in the begining when all you are able to steal are a few pieces of jewlery here and there, maybe some potions. you will get killed ALOT. guard whacked 50x a day. but you know what? it only makes it that much sweeter when you finally get your first good item. also, if you are playing on prodo, you will want to flip out because of the passive reveal and insurance, its horrible. im not saying its easy on siege either though, while there isnt insurance or passive reveal, the people here are alot more savy and thief concious, so sometimes the pickens are slim. the best places to find good loot are either in someones house with them while they think they are safe, or when you stumble across someone out in the wild doing something while they think they are alone haha.
well, i guess ill end this novel now. if you come to siege, look for ^_^
(last tip, if you start a thief on siege, start with 50 ninja and 50 stealing, since they are the hardest ones for us to level here)