Thiefstone

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* Gray stone.png
Name thiefstone
Appearance gray stone
Damage vs. small 1d3
Damage vs. large 1d3
To-hit bonus +0
Weapon skill sling
Size one-handed
Base price 1 zm
(+10/positive
enchant)
Weight 10
Material mineral

The thiefstone is a new item introduced in xNetHack that appears as a gray stone when unidentified.

Generation

All thiefstones are generated cursed.

Effects

If you pick up a cursed thiefstone, it may "steal" a magical item from your inventory and teleport itself along with the item to a "stash" somewhere on the same level; picking up a magical item while carrying a cursed thiefstone will cause it to jump out of your pack and teleport itself and the item to its stash. If you are standing on the same square as its stash in either case, nothing happens.

Each thiefstone will select a spot to place stolen items in upon generation: in order of priority, it will start with a vault, then any one-square closets, and finally any other square on the floor with a container on it. If the selected square has no container, a chest with random contents is generated in that spot; the thiefstone's stash will be found within the container.

Applying or rubbing a non-cursed thiefstone on an applicable item will teleport that item to the stash area, but not the thiefstone itself; all non-cursed thiefstones can teleport magical items this way, and blessed ones can also teleport gems and gold.

Throwing a blessed thiefstone at a gold golem and hitting it will teleport the golem to the square where its 'stash' is located; this includes players polymorphed into gold golems, but will never work on anything carrying the Amulet of Yendor. Due to a bug, throwing is the only method that works on gold golems.

Canceling a thiefstone will permanently prevent it from teleporting items.

Strategy

Thiefstones are highly inconvenient to come across for an unwary player, especially if it steals a vital magical item from you and ends up in a hard-to-reach spot early in the game. However, a non-cursed thiefstone can prove handy to keep around, as it provides a means of "automated" stashing for items and gold without having to travel directly to that stash's square; thiefstones can also be used to informally identify magical items.