>He made
>him drop his axe with maledictions and then stole it using a
>phylactery.

This is partially incorrect.

It used to be that any character, even those without the steal skill, could successfully steal vs. a sleeping target something like 5-10% of the time. Eventually, this changed -- a single necromancer or A-P who could sleep you, load you up, AND steal all your teleport potions was a bit much.

Edited to add: It's also worth noting that more than a few high-end A-P vs. A-P fights of that era went pretty much this same way.