AliBabatheFortyThieves

Alibaba and the Forty Thieves. Once upon a time, in a land far, far away in the East, lives

a man named Alibaba. He lives a poor life with his wife and children. He is a woodcutter.

Every day, he goes into the forest with his donkey to cut wood and then sells these

pieces of wood in town to earn his living.

Kasim is Alibaba's brother. He is very rich and he lives in a big, beautiful house with his wife.

He never helps Alibaba. He is a very greedy man. One day, Alibaba goes to the forest

to cut some wood. Suddenly, he hears a group of men coming towards him.

Alibaba feels afraid because the men don't look friendly. So, he hides his donkey behind

the bushes and climbs a tree to hide. The men come on their horses and stop under the tree.

Alibaba counts exactly 40 of them. They get off their horses and tie them to the trees.

They take down some heavy bags from their horses.

Alibaba says to himself, these men are a gang of thieves. They steal gold and money.

The leader of the men comes in front of a big rock and yells,

Open Sesame! Suddenly, the big rock opens just like a gate and the cave appears.

The 40 men carry their heavy bags into the cave and the door closes behind them.

Alibaba is so surprised that he cannot move. It just sits silently in the tree and watches

everything from there. A few minutes later, the door opens again and the 40 thieves come out.

The leader says, Close Sesame! And the big rock closes immediately.

The thieves leave the forest on their horses.

Alibaba climbs down the tree and goes straight to the big rock.

He repeats the leader's words, Open Sesame!

And the door opens with a loud noise. Alibaba can't believe his eyes when he goes in.

The cave is full of gold, silver, diamonds and treasure chests. He picks up two bags full of gold

and comes out of the cave. And to close the big rock, he yells out the leader's words.

Close Sesame! He puts the bags on his donkey and goes home.

He shows the bags to his wife. She is astonished to see so much gold.

Where is all this gold from? Have you stolen them? She asks. Alibaba tells the whole story to her.

Then he says, Let's bury the gold in the garden.

His wife says, Let's measure the gold first. I can go to your brother Kasim and ask for a measuring

cup. Okay, says Alibaba. But don't tell him anything about the gold. Alibaba's wife goes to

Kasim and asks for a measuring cup. What will you measure with it?

Asks Kasim. Nothing. Just some grains. Says Alibaba's wife.

Kasim is a clever man. He thinks, They're poor. They can't have so much grain.

He secretly puts a little honey under the cup and gives it to Alibaba's wife.

When Alibaba's wife comes back home, they start to measure the gold. They fill and empty the

cup many times. After they measure all the gold, they are very happy with the quantity.

We have become rich, says Alibaba happily. And he digs a hall in the garden and buries the

gold in it. Then Alibaba's wife takes the cup back to Kasim.

Of course, she doesn't notice the gold under the cup, but Kasim sees it.

He can't sleep all night. Alibaba is very poor, but he has got gold coins.

Where did he get those? I must find out what's going on. He says.

Early in the morning, Kasim goes to Alibaba's house. He shows the gold under the measuring cup

to Alibaba. You are poor. Where did you find this gold? Tell me.

Alibaba tells him everything about the thieves and the cave. Please keep it as a secret, says Alibaba.

If you don't show me the cave, I will tell the thieves everything about the gold.

But Kasim, says Alibaba. He understands that he hasn't got any other option,

so he shows the place of the cave to Kasim. Then they come back home. Later, Kasim takes his

donkey with him and goes back to the cave. He knows the words and says,

Open Sesame. And the gate opens. When he goes into the cave, he is completely stunned.

The cave is full of sparkling gold and diamonds. He quickly fills the bags and goes back to the gate,

but the gate is closed. He can't remember the words to open it. He says,

Open door. But it doesn't open. Open rock. But it doesn't open.

He starts to panic and tries to find another gate, but he can't. After a while,

the thieves come to the cave and see Kasim there. Without asking him a single question,

they kill him and leave his body lying inside. In the evening, Kasim's wife goes to Alibaba

and says, I'm worried about Kasim. He hasn't come back home yet. Can you find him please?

Alibaba thinks Kasim must be in the cave. I'll go and find him.

Unfortunately, he sees Kasim's dead body when he goes to the cave. He takes his brother and the

bags of gold back to his house. He tells everything to Kasim's wife. She feels so sad that she bursts

into tears. Don't worry. We won't leave you alone, says Alibaba. From then on, Kasim's wife starts

living in their house. The 40 thieves go to the cave the next day and they get shocked when they

can't see Kasim's dead body there. Their leader says, We killed the man, but somebody else took his

dead body out of the cave. Now there is someone else who knows the place of our money and gold here.

We must find him. Who did we kill? The leader asks, go to the town and find out who has died

recently. He says, So, one of the thieves go to the town to learn this. A few hours later,

the thief learns about Kasim's strange death. He finds Alibaba's house and marks the wall with

a piece of chalk. When Alibaba's wife goes out, she sees the mark on the wall. As she's a clever

woman, she thinks. Somebody is trying to find us. She takes a piece of chalk and puts the same mark

on all the other doors in the neighborhood. When the leader and his men come to the town,

they see that all the houses have the same mark. They can't find Alibaba's house.

So the leader gets very angry. The leader makes a new plan and goes to the town alone.

He spends a lot of time in the town and asks people questions to find Alibaba's house.

When he finally finds it, he knocks on the door and Alibaba opens the door.

Hello. I'm a merchant. I come from a long way. I have barrels full of olive oil.

People say you're a merchant too. Maybe you'd like to buy them.

Says the leader. Alibaba doesn't recognize the leader and invites him to dinner that night.

In the evening, the leader brings 40 big barrels to Alibaba's garden.

Alibaba and the leader have dinner together. When they go to sleep, Alibaba's clever wife

goes to the garden to look inside the olive oil barrels. Suddenly, she hears strange noises

coming from the barrels.

Shall we go up now? Says one of the thieves.

No, it's not time yet. Says the other one. Alibaba's wife gets shocked as she understands that

there are thieves in the barrels, not olive oil. She doesn't shout or make any noise.

She thinks of a plan immediately. She goes to the kitchen and boils some oil.

Then she comes back and pours the boiling oil in each barrel.

Of course, the thieves all die. At midnight, the leader comes near the barrels.

You can get out now. Do you hear me? He says. He listens, but none of the men comes out or says

anything. Are you all sleeping? Wake up. He says once again. There is still no answer.

He opens one of the barrels and sees the dead thief in the barrel. He checks all the barrels

and he sees that all his men are dead. He is terrified and thinks that they can kill him too.

He opens the garden gate and escapes from there in fear. Nobody sees the leader again.

In the morning, Alibaba sees the barrels in the garden. Where is the merchant? He asks.

His wife tells him the whole story. Years pass and Alibaba hears nothing of the leader.

He thinks the leader is dead too. So he goes to the cave and sees that all the gold and jewelry

is still there. He takes as much gold as he can to his house. Years later, Alibaba shares the

secret with his son and his son shares it with his children. So the rich child and grandchildren

of Alibaba live happily till the end of their lives.