In a rug pull, the thing you own (usually some kind of digital asset) goes down in value, leaving you with less money than you started with, whereas theft leaves you no longer possessing the asset itself.

A few extra steps. Usually, the rug pull doesn't involve directly taking something that belongs to other people, but instead, selling your own thing in a dishonest way.

A rug pull means you hype and then sell on the open market without.

A rug pull involves convincing someone to buy something first.

Theft doesn’t have to involve any convincing.

This is a pretty basic distinction. Perhaps you were thinking of “fraud”?

Rug pull is a trap, which can include theft. (You pull the rug and the victim in the cartoon would fall into the spikes hole).