Essay on the Sampler
The short story is called The Sampler and is written by Ira V. Morris. There are two main persons: (are) the good girl and the old bad fellow. Two dissimilarities. The short story deals with the questions if tThe man takes advantage of the free samples offered in the shop or if the shop girl is prejudiced against the old poor fellow.

The short story is about an old fellow, who comes to the plum pudding store once a week. The problem is that the man does not buy any plum puddings, but he samples them. Therefore he gets the plum puddings for free and actually steals from the store (– definition as a thief).

We see the story through the woman’s eyes, therefore the shop girl has the prejudice that the man is poor and cannot afford the product. Even though the man was neatly dressed, she still has the prejudice that he is poor.
The good girl
The shop girl is very friendly and open-minded. Even though the girl knows what the man is up to she lets him come to the store each week, and actually asks him if he wants a spoon to sample the puddings.

“Well, let him come if he wants it that bad” “Would you like to sample them, sir? Here is a spoon for you to use.”

The girl lets the old man sample from the store. And later she wants to buy him a pudding; it would give her such pleasure.
The man samples not just one
The man samples every pudding in the store, but he never buys anything, and he has done it for years. He says he is never satisfied with the plum puddings therefore he gets to sample the next one. (E.g.) ”This is not bad either, but a little too heavy.” The shop girl therefore thinks he will buy a product. But he just samples another, and another, and another. And has done it for years.

“”This is quite good”, he declared in an absurdly rusty voice of one variety, and when he came to the next, “this is not bad either, but a trifle too heavy.””

He tries to seem like he wants to buy the puddings and therefore he sounds interested so the store does not complain. But he becomes very suspicious because he has done it for years without buying a single one.
Now he can never come again to sample
The man was being humiliated, because he was forced to buy a plum pudding he could not afford. Actually the shop girl wanted to buy a plum pudding for the old man, but he thought he had to save his honour. Therefore the man pointed at the largest and most expensive of the puddings.

“Pardon me, sir, will you do me a favour? Let me purchase you one of these puddings. It would give me such pleasure.”

The man could only count shillings and sixpenny pieces from his worn little black pocketbook. and he was forced into a purchase he simply could not afford. The shop girl felt bad for letting the man into this very bad situation, for an old fellow with the honour in the keep. She walked away and now the man can never come there to sample plum puddings again.
Conclusion
I do not think it’s wrong to call the old man a thief. He has been sampling from the store once a week for years now, but has never (has) bought anything wWhich means he fits the definition of a thief. It is not just a prejudice by the good girl to the bad old man.