Constantino's Ring in G2

I had someone ask me a question and thought I would ask it here too.

"Basically, I was looking for the cheapest way to learn Lockpicking, and apparently Ramirez will train you for 150 gold if you are a member of the guild, according to at least one walkthrough I read. That doesn't make sense, because as far as I can tell, you can't possibly join the guild without being able to pick the chest for Constantino's Ring. Am I missing something?"

I was thinking Constantino had the ring on him during the day and it is in his chest at night. But it has been years since I played G2. I do think Ramirez charges you double if you kill Attile that the thieve's guild sends to beat you up.

EDIT: nvm, I just remembered how to join the thieve's guild without the ring.

Actually I played G2 this week. You can kick his ass and use the oblivion scroll from the experiment on him. It's not so easy though.

Lockpicking can be learned from Thorben after you either hand him the ledger from Lehmar (not recommended) or resolving the issue between Gritta and Matteo (recommended). It costs 100 gold.