I don't know anything about a Thievery top, maybe I missed it, but I did steal some +2 Thievery gloves off of a dwarf who scammed me, so I can have probably 7 Thievery.
I was actually right at exactly that point in the fishery. The fight went quite well with my extra armor, although it was only 37% of a level.
With the money from selling the enemy drops rewards from that and the lost ring quest, I got back up to about 12,000 gold again. I even found a skillbook which was not useless, shocker of shockers.
So it seems like I can postpone my gold worries for later.
Try messing around with spirit vision then. A few quests can be completed easily from just running around to give you a few level up and just avoid instant trigger combat.
The Voidling chicken quest can be ended easily by running around to the northwest until you find the papa which gives you tons of loots. (Don't forget to spirit vision for the mama)
Or finding the sick chicken and use fire on it for easy exp.
There's also the 3-altar although one is locked behind a boss so just get 2 of them for easy exp.
Act 2 really just repeat Act 1 pathing, annoying until you get all the gears. Once you figure out the easy exp quests, that's a major advantage.
If you really can't get a thievery top anymore (It is mentioned that it might actually be from papa thrash), just focus on the legendary weapon every 2 level or so in Act 2 from specific npc (Lute girl, Paladins, Dude in the inn and the black guy in the trade market). It's only after 16 should you really update it every level because of the existence of divine gear but it's not that mandatory with 3-source being unlocked and breaking the game until Act 3.
