Thief ( Book ) Summary . Series . Thief is part of a four - volume series named " The Adventures of Eslaf Erol " : Content . If the reader has not yet had the pleasure of reading the first volume in these series on the life of Eslaf Erol , Beggar , he should close this book immediately , for I shan ' t recap . I will tell you this much , gentle reader . When we last saw Eslaf , he was a boy , an orphan , a failed beggar , running through the wildy winter woods of Skyrim , away from his home of Erolgard . He continued running , stopping here and there , for many more years , until he was a young man . Eslaf discovered that among the ways of getting food , asking for it was the most troublesome . Far easier was finding it in the wilderness , or taking it from unguarded market stalls . The only thing worse than begging to get food was begging for the opportunity to work for the money to buy it . That seemed needlessly complicated . No , as far as Eslaf was concerned , he was best off being a scavenger , a beggar , and a thief . He his first act of thievery shortly after leaving Erolgard , while in the southern woods of Tamburkar in the rugged land near Mount Jensen just east of the village of Hoarbeld . Eslaf was starving , having not eaten anything but a rather scrawny raw squirrel in four days , and he smelled meat cooking and then found the smoke . A band of minstrel bards was making camp . He watched them from the bushes as they cooked , and joked , and flirted , and sang . He could ' ve asked them for some food , but so many others had refused him before . Instead , he rushed out , grabbed a piece of meat from the fire , and wincing from the burns , scrambled up the nearest tree to devour it while the bards stood under him and laughed . ' What is your next move , thief ? ' giggled a fair , red - headed woman who was covered with tattoos . ' How do you intend to disappear without us catching and punishing you ? ' As the hunger subsided , Eslaf realized she was right . The only way to get out of the tree without falling in their midst was to take the branch down to where it hung over a creek . It was a drop off a cliff of about fifty feet . That seemed like the wisest strategy , so Eslaf began crawling in that direction . ' You do know how to fall , boy ? ' called out a young Khajiit i , but a few years older than Eslaf , thin but muscular , graceful in his slightest movements . ' If you don ' t , you should just climb down here and take what ' s coming to you . It ' s idiotic to break your neck , when we ' d just give you some bruises and send you on your way . ' ' Of course I know how to fall , ' Eslaf called back , but he didn ' t . He just thought the trick of falling was to have nothing underneath you , and let nature take its course . But fifty feet up , when you ' re looking down , is enough to give anyone pause . ' I ' m sorry to doubt your abilities , Master Thief , ' said the Khajiiti , grinning . ' Obviously you know to fall feet first with your body straight but loose to avoid cracking like an egg . It seems you are destined to escape us . ' Eslaf wisely followed the Khajiiti ' s hints , and leapt into the river , falling without much grace but without hurting himself . In the years that followed , he had to make several more drops from even greater heights , usually after a theft , sometimes without water beneath him , and he improved the basic technique . When he arrived in the western town of Jallenheim on the morning of his twenty - first birthday , it didn ' t take him long to find out who was the richest person , most deserving of being burgled . An impregnable palace in a park near the center of town was owned by a mysterious young man named Suoibud . Eslaf wasted no time in finding the palace and watching it . A fortified palace he had come to learn was like a person , with quirks and habits beneath its hard shell . It was not an old place , evidently whatever money this Suoibud had come into was fairly recent . It was regularly patrolled by guards , implying that the rich man was fearful of been burgled , with good reason . The most distinctive feature of the palace was its tower , rising a hundred feet above the stone walls , doubtless giving the occupant a good defensive view . Eslaf guessed that that if Suoibud was as paranoid as he guessed him to be , the tower would also provide a view of the palace storehouse . The rich man would want to keep an eye on his fortune . That meant that the loot couldn ' t be directly beneath the tower , but somewhere in the courtyard within the walls . The light in the tower shone all night long , so Eslaf boldly decided that the best time to burgle was by the light of day , when Suoibud must sleep . That would be the time the guards would least expect a thief to pounce . And so , when the noon sun was shining over the palace , Eslaf quickly scaled the wall near the front gate and waited , hidden in the crenelations . The interior courtyard was plain and desolate , with few places to hide , but he saw that there were two wells . One the guards used from time to time to draw up water and slake their thirst , but Eslaf noticed that guards would pass by the other well , never using it . He waited until the guards were distracted , just for a second , by the arrival of a merchant in a wagon , bearing goods for the palace . While they were searching his wagon , Eslaf leapt , elegantly , feet first , from the wall into the well . It was not a particularly soft landing for , as Eslaf had guessed , the well was not full of water , but gold . Still , he knew how to roll after a fall , and he didn ' t hurt himself . In the dank subterranean storehouse , he stuffed his pockets with gold and was about to go to the door which he assumed would lead to the tower when he noticed a gem the size of an apple , worth more than all the gold that was left . Eslaf found room for it down his pants . The door did indeed lead to the tower , and Eslaf followed its curving stairwell up , walking quietly but quickly . At the top , he found the master of the palace ' s private quarters , ornate and cold , with invaluable artwork and decorative swords and shields on the walls . Eslaf assumed the snoring lump under the sheets was Suoibud , but he didn ' t investigate too closely . He crept to the windows and looked out . It was going to be a difficult fall , for certes . He needed to jump from the tower , past the walls , and hit the tree on the other side . The tree branches would hurt , but they would break his fall , and there was a pile of hay he had left under the tree to prevent further injury . Eslaf was about to leap when the occupant of the room woke up with a start , yelling , ' My gem ! ' Eslaf and stared at him for a second , wide - eyed . They looked alike . Not surprising , since they were brothers . Eslaf Erol ' s story is continued in the book Warrior .