But that's the way the.... Sorry
It's not so much "aritrary" as just "Unconcerned with the exact numbers" - If a wealthy man finds a five pound note in the street is he suddenly a "very wealthy" man? Is an Impoverished man still Impoverished if he finds it?
Remember that the Wealth isn't just "The number of cows", but also what you do with them!
I think you need to look at it like this - They've been raiding and returned with some cows. If they want to capitalise on them and increase their wealth they are going to have to spend a Hero point on them. Spending a Hero Point on a "game related" activity nets a 1 point increase, so a character with a Wealth of 13 who takes part in a raid as part of the game can spend a Hero point to get a wealth of 14.
If the Characters are already very wealthy then the GM might choose to rule that a "standard" cattle raid will not be sufficient to treat as "Game Related" for the purposes of increasing wealth, although I don't really know what sort of level I'd pitch this at off hand.
In the reverse case where the character has Cows stolen by raiding then I'd treat this in a similar manner to "overspending" your wealth - make a roll of the characters wealth against a resistance related to the size of the loss. (an elderly heiffer - resistance of 3, Your Prize Bull and half of this years calves - Resistance of 5W+...). On any success your wealth is not affected. A marginal failure might reduce your wealth for the next adventure/season, a minor failure reduces your wealth by 1, a major failure by 2 and a Complete failure by 3 (or something similar)
Not a perfect answer I know, but hopefully iy will give you somewhere to start...
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