9 The Tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

CHAPTER 9 The Tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves THE THIRTY-FIFTH NIGHT The following night, when Scheherazade was in bed, her sister Dinarzad said, "Please, sister, tell us one of your lovely little tales." The king added, "Let it be the most amazing tale yet." Scheherazade replied, "As you wish!"

It is said, O King, that there once lived in a town of Persia two brothers, Kasim and Ali Baba. When their father died, Kasim Baba married the daughter of a rich merchant, and when the merchant died, Kasim inherited his money. Ali married a woman named Morgiana, who was very poor but very clever, and he had to earn his living by gathering wood in the forest. One day, while he was loading his wood to take to town, Ali Baba heard the sound of hooves and looked up to see forty horsemen approaching. The sight of the men scared Ali Baba, and he quickly hid in the bushes. As the men came nearer, Ali Baba saw that their horses were loaded with riches. They rode up to the face of a great rock, and the leader of the men cried, "Open sesame!"

Suddenly a wide door appeared in the rock, opening into a cave. The forty thieves rode in, and the door closed behind them. Ali Baba was amazed by what he had seen. Soon the door opened again and the men left, riding back the way they had come. When Ali Baba was sure the men had gone, he approached the rock and repeated the words "Open sesame!" The doorway appeared, and Ali Baba went

inside. He found himself in a great room full of beautiful carpets, rolls of silk, and piles of gold and jewels. Ali Baba packed up as many gold coins as he could carry and rode home to his wife. Ali Baba borrowed a scale from his brother so he could weigh the gold. His sister-in-law was curious to see what Ali Baba wanted to measure, so she coated the scale with wax. When the scale was returned, she found a gold coin stuck to it. She told her husband that Ali Baba was now rich and showed him the gold coin. Kasim Baba went to talk to his brother, and Ali Baba told him everything that had happened at the great rock. Then Kasim Baba went to the cave alone and repeated, "Open sesame!" The wide doorway opened, just as Ali Baba had said, and Kasim Baba went in, amazed at all the riches he saw before him. He spent a lot of time there, gathering so much treasure that he could barely move under the weight of it. The

doorway had closed behind him, and Kasim Baba called out the words "Open barley!" The doorway stayed closed. Kasim Baba had forgotten the spell. He called out many more things, but the door did not move. Kasim Baba was trapped inside. The next day, the forty thieves returned and found Kasim Baba still there. They quickly did away with him. Ali Baba suspected what had happened. He gave his brother a burial and returned to the cave to take a few more bags of gold. The forty thieves began to notice that some of their gold was missing. Their leader went to the town to see whether any man had died there recently and, if so, who. Once the thieves knew this, they might discover who had been working with the dead man. The thieves' leader soon learned about Kasim, then found his way to Ali Baba's door. He marked the door with white chalk and returned to the cave to report all he learned.

Ali Baba's wife saw the chalk mark on the door and suspected danger. She took a piece of white chalk and marked all the other doors in the town. That night, the forty thieves rode into town, intending to kill Ali Baba, but when they saw that all the doors had been marked with white chalk they became greatly confused. The next day, the leader returned and again found his way to Ali Baba's door. Being careful to remember it this time, he went back to the cave, and the thieves prepared forty large jars to hide in. They filled one jar with mustard seeds and hid thirty-nine of the thieves in the others. The leader loaded these jars onto mules and rode into town, pretending to be an oil merchant. He came to Ali Baba's house and knocked on the door, begging to be let in and given a room for the night. Ali Baba took the man in and stored the jars with his animals behind the house. They were eating dinner when Morgiana went out behind