Vinay (Dev Anand), is an ordinary young man who finds himself constantly mistaken for a look-alike jewel thief named Amar. Vinay works with the police to impersonate Amar and crack his crime ring, but it seems that Amar has decided to impersonate Vinay as well, and soon their true identities are thoroughly muddled.

Vinay lives with his father, a Police Commissioner, and his mother in Bombay. Vinay's dad is quite upset with him as he has not learnt any skills, and spends all his time examining stones and jewellery. The city is being held at ransom by a daring jewel thief, who continues to baffle them to no end. They do get a pleasant surprise when they find out that he has secured employment with a leading jeweller by the name of Vishamber Nath. Vinay also gets to meet Nath's attractive daughter, Anju, and there is romance budding in the air. This is short lived when several people greet Vinay as "Amar" or "Prince Amar". Things come to a boil when a young woman named Shalini comes forward and claims that Vinay is her fiancé. Vinay is able to prove to them that he is indeed Vinay, and co-operates with them to locate this elusive Amar – only to find himself embroiled in a devious scheme – that robs him of his sanity, makes him lose his memory, identity, and makes him a target of every policeman in India, particularly in the then-independent Kingdom of Sikkim.

• Dev Anand as Vinay/ Prince Amar
• Vyjayantimala as Shalini "Shalu" Singh
• Ashok Kumar as Arjun Singh
• Tanuja as Anjali Nath
• Helen as Helen
• Faryal as Julie
• Anju Mahendru as Neena
• Nazir Hussain as Police Commissioner
• Sapru (actor) as Seth Vishambar Nath
• Sachin as Shishu Singh

Casting

For the lead female role, Saira Banu was approached by Dev Anand. Banu, who had earlier worked with Anand in Pyar Mohabbat (1966) declined the role due to her marriage to actor Dilip Kumar. Banu had also turned down the role of Rosie in the 1965 film Guide, which was produced by Anand in 1965. Soon, actress Vyjayanthimala was signed for the role; she had worked with Anand before in Amar Deep a decade earlier. Vyjayanthimala was also considered by Anand for the lead role in Guide, but was rejected by Tad Danielewski, the director of Guide's English version.

The film's soundtrack was composed by S. D. Burman, who earlier made a string of memorable film under Navketan Films. The lyrics for this film were by Hindi-Urdu songwriter Majrooh Sultanpuri, except for "Rula Kay Gaya Sapna" by Shailendra. At that time, Shailendra saab wasn't keeping well, so Majrooh saab was approached for the movie. The male playback was done by Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi, who lent their voices for Dev Anand. The female singers were Lata Mangeshkar, who lent her voice for Vyjayanthimala and Asha Bhosle for Tanuja and Helen.

The song Raat Akeli Hai, picturised on Dev Anand and Tanuja, was used in 2011 Bollywood horror film Ragini MMS by Ekta Kapoor.

The music for all the songs were composed by S. D. Burman and The lyrics for this film were by Majrooh Sultanpuri, except for "Rula Ke Gaya Sapna" by Shailendra.

Commercial response

Jewel Thief was a profitable venture for the distributors. Over its theatrical run, Boxofficeindia.com reported that the film had managed to gross ?3,50,00,000 with a net of ?17,500,000 and, adjusted to inflation is about ?345,200,000 (US$5.1 million).^[9][10] Subsequently, Jewel Thief was declared a hit at the box office. It ended up as the sixth highest-grossing film of 1967 and thirty-fifth highest-grossing film of the decade.^[9][10]

Following the success of Jewel Thief, the film was screened in many film festivals. In August 2008, the film was screened along with three other films of Dev Anand at the Government Museum Auditorium for the Chandigarh Film Festival.^[11] The film was also screened by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of India on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Navketan Films.^[12] On 1 August 2009, Jewel Thief was premiered at Regal Cinema, Mumbai .^[13] The premier was attended by Dev Anand, Jackie Shroff, Sudhir Mishra, Amrita Rao, Deepak Parekh, Vijay Kalantri and Pooja Misrra.

A sequel for this film was released in 1996, named Return of Jewel Thief, with only two actors reappearing and reprising their original roles; Dev Anand, reprising the role of Vinay Kumar and Ashok Kumar, reprising the role of Arjun. It was one of the movies in which Dev Anand acted outside his own banner, Navketan. The movie also had an ensemble cast, consisting of actors Dharmendra, Jackie Shroff, Prem Chopra, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Shilpa Shirodkar, Madhoo and Anu Agarwal.