Pilfer: to steal things that are not very valuable or to steal a small amount of something.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pilfer
Used in “Beloved” on page 191 on the very top of the first paragraph.
Not just a rifle of corn, or two yards eggs the hen herself didn’t even remember, everything. Schoolteacher took away the guns from the Sweet Home men and, deprived of game to round out to their diet of bread , beans, hominy, vegetables and a little extra at slaughter time, they began to pilfer in earnest, and it became not only their right but their obligation.
I think that this meant that they began to steal in small amounts so as not to be noticed.
