Talk:A thieves' cache!/@comment-11509945-20161110205404

So, I'm a reasonably well-read person with a big vocabulary, yet I can make no sense of "Be a shame to waste all that sift." Nor can I find any similar uses of "sift" on the internet. Is this some obscure British slang, or a reference to some Fallen London lore I'm not familiar with, or a typo, or what? Anyone have any ideas?