Kassim was married to a rich lady and lived in plenty. After his marriage, he became the owner of a large shop filled with rare goods and costly wares, and of a store house stocked with precious stuffs. He lived in a big house which was no less than a palace.
Ali Baba was a poor wood cutter who earned just enough to make both ends meet. The wife of Ali Baba was poor and needy. So he had to maintain his family by cutting wood in a neighbouring forest and selling it in the town
One day Ali Baba went to the forest to get some wood It was a hot day and the sun was shining brightly. Entering the forest, he began his work immediately.
As he was cutting wood from a big tree, he heard a sound at some distance. When he listened carefully, he understood that it was the footsteps of horses.
It sounded as if they were approaching very fast.
Since the place was known for dacoits, Ali Baba thought that they might be robbers. When he turned around to have a look, he saw a troop of men on horseback, coming towards him in a cloud of dust
Nothing was visible because of the dust. He was sure that they were robbers. As they came nearer, his heart was in his mouth. Now he could see them more clearly and he made it sure that they were robbers.
Although there was nothing that the robbers could take away from him, his condition was no less than a wet cat. He didn't know what to do. He looked here and there to find a place to hide, and finally when he could not think of anything else, he climbed up a tree for safety.
He sat upon a branch from where he could watch everything beneath him. But none below could catch a glimpse of him above, and that tree grew close beside a rock, which towered high above head.
He sat there with a heart pumping so loudly that the birds on that tree could hear that Within no time, the robbers came up to him and dismounted from the horses.
The horse-men were young, active and doughty riders They had a horrifying look. All of them had a scar on their face. Ali Baba who was sitting on the tree could get a good view of them. He counted forty of them.
They unbridled their horses and tied them to the trees. Then all took off their saddle bags, which proved to be full of gold and silver.
The finest man among them was a tall well-built figure, whom Ali Baba took to be their captain. He went a little way away among some bushes, and said, "Open Sesame "
When the captain uttered these words, a door opened in the rock. Ali Baba was amazed to see this. The robbers made their way in cheering and shouting. The leader followed them, and the door shut again itself. Ali Baba who was sitting on the tree saw all these.
He had never, ever in his life heard or seen such a thing. He was so scared that he did not even dare to get down because he feared that the robbers might come out of the cave any time, and seeing him there they would kill him.
He kept his eyes stuck on the cave door and never did he dare to look anywhere else. Hours passed by. But the soldiers did not appear at the door.
At last the door opened again and the forty thieves came out holding empty bags.
The captain stood at the entrance and counted the men as they came out. Then he closed the door, saying, "Shut Sesame."
The door closed as soon as he said this.
After every soldiers was out of the cave, each of them bridled their horse and mounted. They were heavily dressed and held dangerous weapons. This sight took Ali Baba aback for he had never seen such dangerous weapons.
Ali Baba saw them coming out and he was now all the more scared. Soon they went in the direction from where they had come. They mounted their horses and rode away.
Ali Baba remained still perched on the tree and watched their departure, until they were completely out of sight.
Ali Baba was now relieved to watch them go and he heaved a sigh of relief. He gathered strength and got down from the tree.
He looked all around and in the direction where the soldiers had gone to ensure that they were completely out of sight.
Ali Baba then made way to the cave, which was covered with bushes. When he came there, he said tentatively "Open Sesame."
He had just said it when the door flew open. Initially he was taken aback. The door opened very violently and made so much of noise that at one point of time. Ali Baba thought about going back home. But he gathered strength to enter. His feet were trembling and hands were shivering.
He expected a dull, dismal place inside the cave, but to his surprise, it was large and well-lighted, hollowed by the hand of man in the form of a vault, which received the light from an opening in the ceiling
He saw rich bales of merchandise - silk, stuff brocades, all piled together, and gold and silver in heaps, and money in leather purses.
There was light that came through air holes and bull's eyes in the upper surface of the rock, which formed a roof. He was surprised to see the whole room filled with bales of all kinds of articles.
The amount of gold outshone the quantity of gold that would be placed in the vault of the world's richest king
This view brought a smile on his face. He went in and the door shut behind him in the cave there was a lot of gold and diamonds and other precious stones
He brought out as many bags of gold as he thought his ass could carry He packed bags with gold and diamonds He loaded them in his sacks and hid it all with faggots His sacks were so heavy that he could not pick up them easily. The fear of the robbers made him pick up the luggage as quickly as possible.
Finally he loaded the sacks on the back of his ass and covered the sacks with fire-wood.
He closed the door of the cave with the funny words 'Shut Sesame" and went home. Within no time he was at home. Then he drove his ass into the yard. Then he shut the gate and carried the sacks to his wife.
She couldn't believe her eyes. She thought that he had robbed some highway man or a visitor to the city.
"How did you get this much gold," his wife asked
Then he told her the whole story. His wife listened carefully with eyes wide open. He told her about the scenes in the cave.
Ali Baba asked her to keep it secret, and he would go and bury the gold in their garden. "Let me first measure it," said his wife, "then we can calculate the worth and see how we spend it"
For measuring something, one needed a balance Ali Baba was so poor that he never had a balance
"I will go and borrow a balance from your brother," said Ali Baba's wife. So she ran to Kassim's house and asked his wife to lend her a measure
Kassim's wife knew Ali Baba's poverty So she was surprised to hear that, and she was curious to find out what sort of grain she wished to measure For that she artfully put some suet at the bottom of the measure Without knowing that, Ali Baba's wife went home and set the measure on the heap of gold. It weighed a lot more than she had expected it to be.
After she had done all the weighing, she carried the measure back to Kassim's wife, without noticing that a piece of gold was sticking to it. Kassim's wife saw the piece of gold and she was surprised.
She was jealous also. She waited for her husband to come. She wanted to tell her husband about the piece of gold.
All the day she was restless.
At last, evening arrived and Kassim came back She rushed towards the door and announced the secret.
"Your brother is richer than you. He does not count his money, he measures it," she said to her husband. Kassim was amazed to hear it. When he asked her to explain this riddle, she told him about Ali Baba's luck Kassim grew so jealous. So he could not sleep that night. He thought his brother had robbed it, otherwise he would not have got that much gold. So he thought he could blackmail his brother and share a portion of his wealth
His wife too had a sleepless night. As the sun rose the next day, Kassim said to his wife "My dear, I am going to Ali Baba's house and solve the mystery"
After taking the breakfast, Kassim rushed his way to his brother's house. He went there in a hurry and stormed into his house. Ali Baba was surprised to see his brother.
"Dear brother, you seem to be very tired andworried. Tell me what the reason is " "Ali Baba, if you are so considerate of me, you would never hide anything from me," he said. "What is the matter, Kassim? What shall I do? May I know what is there in your mind!" Kassim then showed him the gold piece and said,
"You pretend to be poor, but you measure gold. This is the gold piece which stuck at the base of the measure. I think your wife forgot to pull it out."Ali Baba was shocked to hear that. But he soon understood that because of his wife's stupidity, Kassim and his wife were able to know the secret. "My dear brother, I have no intention to hide anything from you. You are my own flesh and blood and I have always looked up to you as my mentor Wait, I will tell you everything in detail."
"Tell me now itself," cried Kassim curiously Ali Baba told Kassim all about the previous day's happenings. He added, "Brother, I could not control my greed and I brought whatever quantity I could carry" This confession made Kassim very happy. A counterfeited glee appeared on his face.
"Okay, all right, so you have discovered the treasure. It is the duty of a brother to take care of his brother. You must tell me the secret of this gold. If you don't tell me, I will inform the king and he will imprison you for stealing the gold from somewhere."
Kassim threatened Ali Baba. Ali Baba was a noble and simple man. When he heard about the prison, he was very much scared He pleaded, "Brother, do not report to the king You may take the share out of my wealth For God's sake, do not tell this to anybody
Ali Baba offered Kassim a big share. Kassim was not satisfied with this and he wanted to know the magic word and he insisted to go to the cave
At last, Ali Baba told him where the cave was and he told him the magic words Kassim was very happy to hear the words and wanted to go to the cave as early as possible. Thanking his brother, Kassim left the place.
On the way, Kassim was planning to appropriate the treasure for himself. He returned to his house and told his wife about the treasure
They planned to go to the cave the next day. They could not sleep that night also. They could dream of nothing else but gold. Next morning, Kassim rose early and cried to his wife, "My dear, prepare a hefty meal for me and load the mules with chests so that I can take as much of gold as I can." She soon obeyed her husband and for the first time did it willingly.
Soon Kassim was ready to go and set out with two mules loaded with bags and sacks. His wife bid him good luck Kassim led his mules towards the forest. He was lost in his dreams throughout the way. After a tiresome journey he reached the cave.
He looked for the door of the cave and located door in the rock. He remembered the magic words which Ali Baba had taught him "Open Sesame," he said loudly as he could, fearing that the door would not obey.
The door opened. He was very happy and excited. He stood there for a while awestruck by this strange sight. He hurried towards the cave and entered into it. He started collecting the treasures and soon his bags and sacks were filled with gold, diamonds and other precious stones.
He stayed in the cave for hours and at last he decided to go back. He went towards the door of the cave overjoyed with the discovery of the treasures. When he was ready to go, he forgot what to say for the door to open. He had forgotten the magic code.
Instead of 'Sesame,' he said, 'Open Barley' and the door did not open. He used the names of different grains, but the door remained closed.
He stood there frightened and trying all the words that appeared in his mind but all in vain. "For God's sake, please open," at last he cried at the door. Then he rushed to the door and tried to open it forcibly. He pushed hard and punched and kicked it.
Kassim sweated and toiled hard to break the door
But it didn't open. So he wandered around in the cave for hours to find another outlet. But his efforts were futile.
Finally, he sat there and started to weep loudly. Now all he could do was to wait for the robbers to return. He stayed there for hours waiting for someone to come and open the door. As he was so scared he could not even touch the food that was in the cave, even though he was dying of hunger.
At last the robbers arrived on their horses. They saw some mules outside the cave and knew that somebody has found their hide-out. Soon, they began to search in the bushes, holding their swords to kill the trespassers at once when found out.
Kassim was able to hear the faint Foot steps outside the cave. Now his heart was in his mouth. He heard the magic words said by the leader.
He was shocked to hear those words. The door of the cave was open and the robber troop marched into the cave. Those men carried large bags, which they had looted from the neighbouring village.
When they were in, Kassim rushed to the door and tried to escape. The robbers saw him and they went towards him.
Kassim knew that his end was near. So he begged for his life, but it had all fallen on deaf ears. The captain said to Kassim, "You entered into our cave for which you will get an apt punishment. That is no less than a death sentence."
The robbers with their swords immediately killed him. They butchered his body with swords. They cut him into four quarters, and hanged them up in front of the cave, in order to frighten all who would venture to come there.After that they again went out for looting.
Meanwhile, at his house, Kassim's wife grew very uneasy as it was very dark by then. She had been waiting for the whole day for her husband to return.
Hours passed by and now many bad things came into her mind.
Eventually, the night arrived, but there was no sign of Kassim
She was so scared that she ran to her brother-in law On reaching, she told Ali Baba where her husband had gone and burst out crying.
"I pray you, please go and save his soul. I have a feeling that he is in grave danger. It's dark and he hasn't returned yet. I am worried. You are the only one who knows the way to the cave and you are his one and only brother." She said, crying loudly Ali Baba and his wife did their best to comfort her "Don't worry, nothing will happen. You don't need to lose heart. Your brother-in-law is here to do what is necessary," Ali Baba comforted her. Ali Baba decided to go to the cave in search of his brother No matter how much his brother hated him, Ali Baba had always loved his brother. So he went to the forest with three asses
Ali Baba knew that something dreadful had happened to his brother. So he was very much worried
The robber did not know what to do. He was totally confused
They returned to the cave and the robber was beheaded at once for having failed.
Another robber took the job. He also went to the cobbler Mustafa and he showed him Ali Baba's house. He marked that house with red chalk, but Morgiyana was very clever and she saw the red mark and did the same as before.
The second robber too was sentenced to death.
The leader decided to go himself next time. He was cleverer than others. So he did not mark the house, but he looked at it very closely and marked in his mind He went to Ali Baba's house disguised as an oil merchant
He brought 38 leather jars. Then he put his men fully armed in each jar and he rubbed the outside of the jars with oil. He filled oil in the thirty eighth jar. He loaded the jars on the back of the mules and reached the town by dusk.
The leader stopped his mules in front of Ali Baba's house, and said to Ali Baba, who was sitting outside. "I have brought some oil from a distance to sell in the market. But now it is very late and I don't know where to stay tonight, as I am here for the first time. What shall I do?"
Ali Baba had seen the leader of the robbers before But the leader was in disguise and hence Ali Baba could not recognize him. So he welcomed him. He opened the gate for the mules to enter He called Morgiyana and asked her to prepare a bed and supper for his guest
He brought the stranger into his hall and they had their food. When Ali Baba went inside to speak to Morgiyana, the leader went to the yard pretending to see his mules. There he told his men what to do.
He went to each jar and said, "As soon as I throw some stones from the window of the chamber where ! lie, cut the jars open with your knives and come out. I will be with you in a moment." After saying this to his fellow men, he went to his chamber, led by Morgiyana
Then Morgiyana went to the kitchen to cook something for her master. While she was cooking, she found that she had no more oil in the house. As it was very late, she couldn't go out and buy some oil and all the shops were closed.
"Don't worry," said Abdullah, her fellow slave, go to the yard and take some oil from those jars.
Morgiyana thanked him for his advice, took the oil pot and went to the yard. When she came to the first jar, the robber inside it whispered. "Is it time?" As soon as she opened the jar, she saw an armoured man inside it.
Any other slave would have screamed and made noise on finding a man in the jar, instead of oil. But Morgiyana did not do that. She understood the dangerous situation of her master
So she thought of a plan and without wasting time she answered quietly, "Not yet, I will let you know" She went to all the jars and gave the same answer to each one. Then in the last jar she found oil only.
She filled her oil pot and went back to the kitchen. Then she boiled the oil and poured it into every jar to stifle and kill the robber inside
After that brave deed, she went back to the kitchen, put out the fire and the lamp and waited to see what would happen. In a quarter of an hour, the leader awoke, got up and opened the window
As all seemed quiet, he threw some stones at the jars.
Nothing happened. None of his men came out. He became very uneasy and went down to the yard. He went to the first jar and said, "Are you asleep?"
No answer. Then he opened the jar. The smell of the hot oil and burnt flesh came out of the jar He opened the other jars and he found all the gang was dead.
He was scared to know that his plot had failed. He then fled for his life without making noise. Morgiyana heard and saw all this and went to bed and fell asleep.
At day-break, Ali Baba rose seeing all the oil jars still there, he asked, "Morgiyana, why the merchant did not take the jars and mules with him?"
Morgiyana led him to the first jar and asked him to look into it.
Seeing a man, he startled back in terror. "Don't worry," said Morgiyana, "the man cannot harm you, he is dead." To his astonishment, she told him the whole story. She told him it was a plot of the robbers of the forest, "Out of forty only three were left. They had marked the house with red and white chalks before." When Ali Baba heard all this, he at once gave Morgiyana her freedom, saying that he owed her his life.
They then buried the bodies in Ali Baba's garden, while the mules were sold in the market by his slaves.
5
The captain returned to his cave. He felt very lonely. Without his companions, it seemed frightful to him. He resolved to take revenge.
"I will kill Ali Baba for what he has done to my fellow men," he said to himself. Again he disguised himself and went to the town. There he took lodging in an inn.
Whenever he went to the forest cave, he used to bring rich stuffs and much fine linen. Then he set up a shop opposite to that of Ali Baba's son.
He called himself Cogia Hassan, and as he was both courteous and well-dressed, he soon made friends with Ali Baba's son Through his son, Cogia Hassan continuously asked Ali Baba to sup with him.
Ali Baba, wishing to return his kindness, invited him to his house and received him smiling, thanking him for his kindness to his son. When Cogia Hassan was about to take leave, All Baba stopped him, saying, "Where are you going, sir, in such a haste? Will you please stay and have dinner with me?"
Cogia Hassan refused saying that he had an appointment fixed earlier. To Ali Baba's constant request, he replied, "It is because I can eat no victuals that contain any salt in them."
"If that is the reason," said Ali Baba, "let me tell you that there will be no salt in either the meat or the bread that we are going to eat tonight." He went and told this to Morgiyana. She was surprised to hear that.
"Who is this man," she said, "who eats no salt with meat" "He is an honest man, Morgiyana," said Ali Baba, "So do as I tell you." Morgiyana could not resist a desire to see this strange man. So he helped Abdullah to carry up the dishes.
When she saw the guest, she at once recognized that Cogia Hassan was the leader of the robbers and that he had with him a dagger under his garment
"I have no doubt," she said to herself, "This wicked man who planned to kill my master, will eat no salted food with him. Of course, I will hinder his plans”
She sent the supper by Abdullah. Then she waited to act at the right time.
When the dessert had been served, Cogia Hassan was sitting with Ali Baba and his son. He was planning to kill them. Morgiyana, meanwhile, put on a head-dress like a dancing girl and put a girdle round her waist, from which hung a dagger with a silver hilt. Then she said to
Abdullah, "Take your tabor and let us go and divert our master and his guest"
Abdullah took his tabor and played before Morgiyana until they came to the doors. where Abdullah stopped playing and Morgiyana showed respect "Come in Morgiyana," said Ali Baba. "Come and let Cogia Hassan see what you can do."
Cogia Hassan was irritated because he feared that his chance of killing Ali Baba could not be done at present, but he pretended that he was very eager to see Morgiyana.
Abdullah began to play and Morgiyana started dancing.
While she was dancing she drew her dagger sometimes pointing it at her own breast, sometimes at her master's
She did like that as if it were a part of the dance
Suddenly, she snatched the tabor from Abdullah with her left hand. Then she held out the tabor to her master.
Ali Baba and his son put a piece of gold into it. She came to Cogia Hassan and he pulled out his purse to give her a present. While he was putting his hand into his purse, Morgiyana plunged the dagger into his heart.
"Foolish girl!" cried Ali Baba "What have you done? Oh, Now, you have ruined us "It is to save you master, not to ruin you," Morgiyana answered. "See here," she said, opening Cogia Hassan's garment and showing the dagger. "See the real face of
Cogia Hassan. You have entertained your enemy. Remember what he said, he would eat no salt with you."
It was a custom there. If you had salt in the food, you should not kill the one who gave you the salted food.
"Look at him. He is the leader of the forty thieves. I have suspected him at first sight and I was sure that he would attack you."
Ali Baba was shocked to hear that. When he rouse from the shock, he thanked her.
"You have saved me from the thief twice." He hugged her and cried, "From today onwards, you are free and you are no more my slave."
Ali Baba was so grateful to Morgiyana that he offered her his son in marriage to which his son readily agreed. After a few days, the wedding was celebrated in great splendour.
Days passed on.
One morning, Ali Baba mounted his horse and reached the cave, with all care and caution. He did not find any sign of man or horse. So he ventured to go near the door. Then he dismounted, and tied the horse to a tree.
After that he went to the entrance and said: "Open Sesame," which he had not forgotten.
The door flew open and he entered into the cave and he saw the goods and the treasures untouched and lying as he had left them.
So he was sure that, not one of all the thieves was alive He understood that he was the only person who knew the secret of the place.
At once he bound in his saddle-cloth a load of gold and silver coins as much as his horse could carry and brought it home. After some days, Ali Baba and his son went to the cave and brought home all the treasures in the cave Thus Ali Baba and his family lived all pomp and splendour in that city where he had been a pauper.
He had become so rich that his future generations never ever saw poverty
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