I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, "Cut off the hand for a quarter of a Dinar, but do not cut it off for anything less than that." At that time, a quarter of a Dinar was equal to three dirhams, and a Dinar was twelve dirhams.He said, "What he stole was less than a quarter of a Dinar, so I did not cut off his hand."
سمعت رسول الله ﷺ يقول: اقطعوا في ربع دينار، ولا تقطعوا فيما هو أدنى من ذلك. وكان ربع الدينار يومئذ ثلاثة دراهم، والدينار اثني عشر در در هما. قال: وكانت سرقته دون ربع الدينار، فلم أقطعه.
Imam Ahmad (4515) narrated it from Hashim, who said, Muhammad, meaning Ibn Rashid, told us from Yahya bin Yahya Ghassani, who said, I came to Madinah and met Abu Bakr bin Muhammad bin Amr bin Hazm, who was governor of Madinah. He said, A thief was brought to me, so my aunt Amra bint Abdul-Rahman sent word to me saying, "Do not rush in the matter of this man until you come to me, so I can tell you what I heard from Ayesha regarding the matter of a thief." He said, So she came to me and told me that she had heard Ayesha say, and then he related the hadith.Bayhaqi (8/255) also narrated it through another route from Muhammad bin Rashid in similar fashion. Its chain of transmission is hasan. Muhammad bin Rashid is al-Makhuli al-Khuzai al-Dimashqi, about whom there is disagreement. Ahmad, Ibn Main, and Nasai considered him reliable, but others criticized him regarding his memory.As for Yahya bin Yahya Ghassani, he is Abu Uthman al-Shami, a trustworthy narrator, deemed reliable by Ibn Main and Yaqub bin Sufyan. Ibn Hibban said, "He was among the jurists of the people of Syria."The hadith of Abu Bakr bin Muhammad, from Amra, from Ayesha, was also recorded by Muslim (4:1684) through another route from him, with the wording, "The hand of the thief is not to be cut off except for a quarter of a dinar or more."