Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES
Once upon a time . . . in a distant Persian
city lived two brothers called Ali Baba and
Kasim. Ali Baba was terribly poor, and he lived
with his wife in a mud hut. He picked up
sticks in the woods and sold them in bundles at
the market.
Kasim, however, had a rich wife, and he lived
in a big fine house and sold carpets. He
became richer than ever. One day, as Ali Baba
was gathering sticks in a wood some way
from the city he heard a band of horsemen gallop
towards him. Scared that he might be in
trouble for stealing wood, he scrambled up a tree
and hid amongst the foliage, seconds
before the men, armed to the teeth, rode underneath.
They were robbers, no doubt about that. Ali
could tell by their evil looks, rough beards and
bad language. But what made it perfectly clear
to him was the booty they unloaded from
their horses, obviously plundered in a raid. Their
leader was a grim wicked-looking man.
Followed by his men, he strode towards a rocky
mountain nearby. Throwing wide his arms
suddenly shouted:
"Open sesame!"
Ali Baba could hardly believe his eyes. For
at the robber's words, the rock face swung
open to become the entrance to a deep, dark cave.
The robbers trooped inside, dragging
their sacks. Ali Baba was struck dumb by this
amazing sight, and he crouched in his tree,
without moving a muscle. He could hear the robbers'
voices echo in the cave, then out
they came. Again opening his arms, the leader
exclaimed loudly:
"Close sesame!" And the rock swung
tightly shut, as they leapt onto their horses and
galloped away. Trembling with fear, Ali Baba climbed
down the tree. He had just had the
biggest shock of his life. Hardly aware of what
he was doing, he muttered:
"Open sesame," But the mountain stood
still. Ali Baba said the words again, but this time
he shouted them. Suddenly, the rock began to move.
Ali Baba lit a flare and entered the
cave. In front of his bulging eyes lay vast piles
of treasure: pots of silver gold, precious
vases, weapons studded with rubies and emeralds,
diamonds, carved plates and carpets,
all heaped together.
The poverty-stricken stick-gatherer rubbed
his eyes in disbelief. His hand was shaking like
a leaf, as he picked up a gold coin.
"It's real!" he said in awe. Jabbering
with excitement and stunned at the sight of such
untold wealth, he told himself:
"I'll take some coins. Nobody will ever
know!" And he filled four bags full. The second he
reached home, Ali Baba locked the door and emptied
the sacks in front of his astounded
wife.
"Count them," he ordered her triumphantly,
before telling her what had happened. But
there were far too many coins for these poor people
to count. "We can't count them all.
Run to my brother's house and ask him for a corn
measure. We'll use that," said Ali Baba.
When Kasim's wife heard this strange request,
her curiosity was aroused.
"][ wonder what they want to measure.
It can't be corn, they're far too poor." And she
quickly brushed a touch of tar across the bottom
of the measuring pail. And when she got
the pail back there was something stuck to it
- as the clever woman had known there
would be. It was a gold coin.
"A gold coin. Where did that come from?
They're the poorest of the poor!" And she rushed
off to tell her husband. Kasim was most annoyed.
"How dare my brother have gold coins without
telling me about it," he snapped. And off he
marched to ask Ali Baba for an explanation. Ali
Baba innocently told Kasim his strange
story, but asked him to keep it a secret. Of course,
Kasim promised, but he quickly told
his wife about it and ordered the servants to
saddle ten sturdy mules for next morning.
"I'll be richer than ever. Incredibly
rich!" he said to himself as he went to bed. But he didn't
sleep a wink for thinking of the treasure. It
was still dark when Kasim and his mule train
set out. When he reached the mountain, beyond
the forest, he pronounced the magic
words and entered the cave. With a beating heart,
he crammed as much as he could into
the saddle bags. But Kasim's greed led to his
downfall, for the bags were so stuffed with
treasure that they became too heavy to lift. Kasim
realised, with a sinking feeling, that he
would have to leave behind some of his precious
burden. But it took him a long time, and
he was still picking over what to keep and what
to abandon, when . . .
. . . as fate would have it, the robber band
returned. When they saw that the entrance to
the cave was open, they rushed inside with drawn
swords. Unlucky Kasim was quickly
discovered and killed. And the robbers were so
fierce that they chopped him into four and
left the pieces at the entrance. "That will
warn any other snooper of the end that awaits
him!" shouted the leader. Kasim's wife waited
in vain for two days, then in desperation,
she ran to Ali Baba and told him where her husband
had gone, asking for help. Ali Baba
was dismayed.
"He promised he would never . ."
However, Ali Baba was fond of his brother, so he saddled
a mule and rode to the mountain. When he saw,
to his horror, the remains of Kasim, he
broke down and wept. Then he plucked up enough
courage to wrap them in a rug, which
he tied to the mule's back. But Kasim's wife,
when she saw what had happened to her
husband, died of a broken heart. Ali Baba and
his family went to live in Kasim's palace.
There he met Morgantina, a clever young slave
girl who had long been a servant in the
palace.
It was she who told Ali Baba that his brother's
remains could be put together again before
being buried. Mustapha, the cobbler, would do
the job, for a good reward. "I have to
blindfold you," Morgantina told the cobbler,
"so you can't see where you're going, then
there won't be any gossip." The cobbler did
his work well and was led, still blindfolded,
back to his shop, with a bag of gold for his trouble.
In the meantime, when the robber leader saw
that the body had been removed, he knew
that someone else had found the treasure trove.
Angry and alarmed, he ordered one of his
men to sneak into the city and find out what he
could. Well, by sheer chance, the spy had
a hole in the sole of his boot and he went into
the cobblers. Mustapha was bursting to tell
someone all about his luck...
"...and they gave me a bag of gold for
stitching the body together again." "If you take me
to the place, I'll give you another bag of gold,"
said the robber immediately. The robber
nearly danced for joy. Then his heart sank. How
was he to find the house he had never
seen.
"I'll blindfold you again," said
the robber, "then you take your time and try to remember
which way you went!" As it turned out the
robber was lucky, for Mustapha had an
excellent sense of direction. What's more, he
had counted his footsteps. So he counted
them again.
"...five hundred and ten, five hundred
and eleven, five hundred and twelve. Here!" The
cobbler wrenched the cloth from his eyes and found
himself in front of Ali Baba's palace.
The robber handed over the bag of gold and, unseen,
drew a red cross on the door. Then
he hurried away to give his leader the news.
Dusk fell and, as Morgantina was about to enter
the palace, she noticed the strange mark.
Her suspicions aroused, she quickly drew red cross
on all the other doors in the street. At
dead of night the wicked band arrived to take
revenge, but at the sight of all the red
crosses, they stopped in their tracks. Which was
the right door? Morgantina had
unknowingly saved her master from death, and the
leader of the gang put his man to the
sword for giving him a false lead.
"You fools. Can't you do anything properly?
I'll go to the city myself." Disguised as a
merchant, he went to Mustapha. Delighted at the
idea of earning more money, the cobbler
took the robber to Ali Baba's palace. And the
wicked man fixed in his mind the exact
place and street. Back in his hideout, he ordered
two of his men to buy a cart and thirty
nine giant jars. Now, after the murder of the
messenger, there were only thirty eight
robbers left, and each one hid in a jar. The last
jar was filled!led with oil, and loaded with
the others onto the cart pulled by four horses.
The robbers set off for the city. It was late
when they reached the palace and Ali Baba himself
came out. "What can I da for you?" he
said.
"I'm an oil merchant," replied the
leader, "and I must be at market tomorrow. It's late an
we're weary. Can you give us a bed for the night?"
Pleased at being able to help, Ali Baba,
who had known what it meant to be poor, warmly
welcomed the merchant and his men
and had the cart taken into the courtyard.
After a good meal, the leader of the band went
back to the courtyard. He said he was
going to make sure than none of the jars had been
damaged during the journey, but in
fact, he warned his men to be ready, at a signal,
to leap from the jars and kill everyone in
the palace. As the household slept, Morgantina
lingered in the kitchen to tidy up.
Suddenly, she thought she would have a sip of
the merchant's oil to see if it was as tasty
as her own. But when she lifted the lid from the
first jar, to her horror, a gruff voice growled:
Ñ "Is it time?"
"No, not yet," muttered Morgantina
hastily. At every jar, exactly the same thing happened,
but the last one was filled with oil, which she
dragged back into the kitchen. She then
tipped the contents into a huge cauldron and heated
it over the fire. Then, taking a jugful of
boiling oil, Morgantina poured it over the head
of a robber. She then poured the oil over
every one of the robbers and, in this way, wiped
out the whole band. Then she hid in a
corner.
A little later, the leader of the robber band
hurried into the courtyard to give the signal to
attack. But when he raised the lids, he found
to his terror that every one of his men was
dead. Horrified, he could not fathom what trap
he had fallen into. The robber fled into the
night. Next morning, Morgantina told Ali Baba
of her adventure.
"I'll never be able to thank you enough!"
exclaimed Ali Baba. "You are an amazing girl.
From this second you are no longer a slave, but
a free member of this household." The
dead men were buried under cover of darkness,
and Ali Baba was sure he had nothing
more to fear. The leader of the robber band, however,
had recovered from his shock and
was eager for revenge. So he shaved off his beard,
changed his looks and disguised
himself as a carpet seller. At the market, he
met Tabit, Ali Baba s son, who took a liking
to him. "Sooner or later this silly chap
will invite me home," said the false carpet seller,
"then I can murder them all."
"That merchant has sold you some fine
carpets very cheaply, remarked Ali Baba to his
son. "Ask him to come to the house."
When Morgantina saw the guest, she felt sure his
face was familiar. Then she remembered. The carpet
seller and the leader of the band
were one and the same person. Without saying a
word, she went back to the kitchen, but
later she asked All Baba if she might dance for
the guest.
"If you like," said Ali Baba. When
coffee was served, Morgantina entered in D a swirl ofF
veils to the beat of her tambourine. In her right
hand she held a knife. As she stopped
dancing, she thrust the knife into the carpet
seller's heart.
"He's one of the robbers!" she cried.
"I know his face. He would have killed us all."
Morgantina had once more saved their lives! Tabit
hugged her, little knowing that his joy
would soon turn to love and that they would marry.
Ali Baba was the only person left who
knew the secret of the treasure. He made wise
use of it for many years, but he never told
anyone the magic words that would open the cave
of the Forty Thieves.
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