A person who filches or steals small items in a sneaky way; a petty thief.
From 'filch' with the agent suffix '-er,' meaning 'one who does.' The term has been used since the 1600s to describe petty thieves.
Victorian and Dickensian literature is full of filchers—orphaned children who steal bread or coal—and the word captures both the crime and the desperation that motivated it, making it more sympathetic than 'thief.'
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