Yenicall, a cat burglar seduces the owner of Leesung Gallery, and steals a rare artifact with the help of three other partners: Popie, the leader, Zampano, the assistant, and Chewingum, a middle-aged conwoman.

In Hong Kong, Chen, Jonny and Andrew are contacted by Macau Park and agree to enroll as the Chinese part of the team, along with a safe-cracker named Julie.

Macau Park reveals the target to be the Tear of the Sun, a valuable diamond in the possession of Tiffany, the mistress of a powerful crime lord named Wei Hong.

Meanwhile, Zampano unsuccessfully prods Yenicall for a confession of love, but she avoids answering by setting the plan in motion.

Macau Park reveals that it was Popie who cut the rappelling cable four years ago because he too was in love with Pepsee.

Pepsee returns to Korea and learns that Yenicall has travelled to Hong Kong again, hoping to find another buyer for the diamond.

Director Choi Dong-hoon was quoted: "These are the very actors that inspired me to write what I have for the movie's script starting from its first line.

Though similar to it, he thinks The Thieves is actually closer to his previous films The Big Swindle and Tazza: The High Rollers, with the action featured "invested with more emotion."

Kim Yoon-seok added that contrary to the characters' compatible and harmonious collaboration in Ocean's Eleven, "In The Thieves, we are all over the place, all with our own faults.

"[6][31] After six months of location shoots in Seoul, Busan,[32] Macau,[33] and Hong Kong, filming wrapped up on December 7, 2011.

[51][52][53][54][55][56][57] Kim Soo-hyun then fulfilled his public pledge to give a piggyback ride to the 10 millionth ticket holder, a middle school girl.

[58] After reaching over 11 million viewers on its fourth week, it rose to number 4 on the Korean all-time box office charts, beating Haeundae.

[65][66][67][68] Though the film's promoter sent out a press release that The Thieves reached 13,020,393 admissions on October 2 (70 days since its opening), making it the highest on the all-time box office chart,[69][70][71][72][73] the Korean Film Council reported the actual admissions to be at 12,983,334 — leaving the previous record of The Host unbroken.

[74] The distribution rights to the picture were purchased by several countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Vietnam.

[75][76][77] It made its North American premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival,[78] and was distributed in the US by Well Go USA Entertainment.