despoiler vs thief

despoiler and thief both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
despoiler	Yes	No	No	No
thief	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, thief is a hypernym of despoiler; that is, thief is a word with a broader meaning than despoiler:

despoiler: someone who takes spoils or plunder (as in war)
thief: a criminal who takes property belonging to someone else with the intention of keeping it or selling it

Other hypernyms of despoiler include stealer.

despoiler (noun)	thief (noun)
someone who takes spoils or plunder (as in war)	a criminal who takes property belonging to someone else with the intention of keeping it or selling it