Then answered the five men that went to spy out the country of Laish, and said unto their brethren, Do ye know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image? now therefore consider what ye have to do. (Judges 18:14)
That is, consider what to do in order to get the ephod, teraphim, and graven image into the possession of the Danites. From what follows, it was evidently decided that one group would engage the Levite in conversation, and meanwhile others would slip into the shrine and appropriate to their own use its religious objects.