I think there have always been many slang words for theft; partly as a sort of euphemism, trying to find a word that sound less unpleasant than "steal", and also because if, among a given group of people, they keep changing the words used in relation to crime, they can have conversations when they're unlikely to be understood if overheard. That's always been the way in the criminal underworld, and lightweight "nicking" or "pinching" is so common that such terms are widely used by everyone.

Marje