The gnomes live away from each other and rob everything they can from whomever, including other gnomes, without being seen, using their reduced size as advantage, so they can accumulate wealthy as much as they wish. So it´s common to have fights for territory and mutual aggression happening between them specially when they are caught in the act, which explains the fact they are not seen together or even at the same places most of times. Despite not living in society anymore, some old traditions were not forgot. They usually tattoo their own faces as a way to show how much respect they conquered for themselves, or how much they robbed.
A human who meets some gnome thief in his way can easily take everything from them, and find out some food or even unimaginable treasures.