Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

Once upon a time, in a city in Persia, there lived two brothers: Kasim was a rich merchant, and Ali Baba a poor woodcutter. Every day Ali Baba went to the forest with his donkeys, cut wood and sold it at the market.

One day in the forest he saw a cloud of dust in the distance. He quickly climbed a tree and hid. Forty riders came; each had a sword at his belt and the look of a bandit. Their chief stopped in front of a rock and shouted: "Open, Sesame!" The rock rumbled open and the forty thieves went inside. After a while they came out; the chief said "Close, Sesame!" and the rock closed. They mounted their horses and rode away.

Trembling, Ali Baba climbed down from the tree. He went to the rock and whispered: "Open, Sesame!" The rock opened. Inside were mountains of gold, silk cloth, chests of jewels. Ali Baba took only three sacks of gold. "That's enough for me," he said. He loaded them onto his donkeys and went home.

His wife borrowed a measure from Kasim's wife to count the gold. The nosy woman smeared fat on the bottom of the measure, and a gold coin stuck to it. When Kasim saw it he pressed his brother and learned the secret. The next morning he went to the cave with ten mules. He got inside, but faced with all that treasure he forgot the password: "Open, Barley! Open, Wheat! Open, Chickpea!" The rock did not open. When the thieves returned they found Kasim in the cave, and that was the end of him.

Ali Baba secretly buried his brother. The chief of the thieves said, "Someone else knows the secret," and came down to the city. He followed the tailor, found Ali Baba's house and marked the door with chalk. But Ali Baba's clever servant girl Morgiana noticed and put the same mark on every door in the street. The thieves could not find the house.

This time the chief disguised himself as an oil merchant; he hid thirty-nine thieves in thirty-nine oil jars and came as a guest to Ali Baba's courtyard. At night Morgiana went to fetch oil for her lamp and heard a voice from a jar: "Is it time?" Morgiana deepened her voice: "Not yet." She realized there was a thief in every jar. She boiled oil in a great cauldron and poured it into each jar. At midnight the chief called to his men and got no answer; he understood everything and fled.

Some time later the chief returned disguised as a merchant, befriended Ali Baba's son and was invited to dinner. Morgiana recognized him. After the meal she danced, and at the end of the dance she plunged her dagger into the chief's heart. Ali Baba froze with fear, but when Morgiana showed the sword hidden under the chief's robe, he understood everything.

Ali Baba set Morgiana free and married her to his son. He told the secret of the cave only to his family, and they took only what they needed. Because they never forgot Kasim's story: greed makes you forget even the password.