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It's funny - AD&D doesn't really have a rule that you get XP for gold found (it has to be guarded gold)

But ignoring that, the ability to level up without fighting - I recently found it really liberating to consider, when making up a dungeon for AD&D.

The thing with combat is if players have to do it to get XP, well then if you put in a nasty, scary monster - they whine. Because it's too scary, too impossible to get past. And they are forced to fight it to get XP. That or if there are weak monsters, they will avoid all the scary fights and instead engage a bunch of BORING fights instead. Almost worse, in a way.

But when fighting isn't required? Suddenly fights CAN be scary - because they don't have to happen!

Suddenly the fights even scarier, because the player realises they probably don't even have to be doing this fight - there was some way around it. So the onus is entirely on them the player and OMGIFIDIEITSALLMYFAULTICANTBLAMESOMEONEELSE!

So, how about with browser games? Having a way where there are ways of sneaking around the monster and getting gold? Has this been done much before? Has this been done before?

It isn't exactly what you are talking about, but Ultima Online was like this to a degree. Players had to choose whether they wanted to be an adventurer, and if not, they could basically avoids fighting monsters all together, and advance on totally different scales to be powerful characters.

Other than that, I would say to look around at various sandbox games. I don't know of any true, 100% sandbox PBBGs, but in the MMO world, there were a few games that you could avoid almost all monster fights, and level-up in different dimensions. But I can't say I have seen a straight level-based game that allowed you to advance in the same way as players who fight monsters by avoiding fights and earning gold, no.

Yeah, I kinda mean "I think if I go this way, I can get around behind them and grab their treasure without them noticing", sort of way. It's not like you can just choose, it's more like you can try and figure a way from a series of options, to try and snag the treasure without fighting.

Skill usage would be the key. It is not the act of receiving the gold as much as how you did it. AD&D has many EXP flaws and I always changed the spell system.

We went to a more Rifts style EXP system.

Successfully Using a Skill (25 xp, doesn't count for DM prompted Listen/Spot checks)
Good Idea (100 xp)
Avoiding Unnecessary Violence (200 xp)
Thinking Outside-the-Box Idea (500 xp)
Defeating an Opponent (CR x100 xp)

Ever played Morrowind? Sometimes I make a character that is a fighter/bruteforce and just hack and slash my way through monsters/guards and get loot that way. And sometimes I make a sneak/thief character and get my sneaking and thievery skills high so i can sneak around/past monsters/guards and grab the loot instead of having to fight them face to face.