Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves
Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves :
Life was difficult for Ali Baba. He was a woodcutter and could hardly make ends meet. One day as usual, he was in the forest cutting wood when he heard the sound of horses. He hid his donkey and climbed on to a tree to see who it was.
It was a whole troop of men. Thieves it seemed to Ali Baba. Each one was carrying a bag. The men stopped by a rock and one of the men dismounted from his horse and went up to the rock and said, “Open Sesame.”
The rock made a creaking sound and swung open like a door.
The men went in carrying their bags. Ali Baba counted the number of men. They were forty in all. After a little while they came out without their bags.
The man who appeared to be leader said, “Close Sesame.”
The rock-door closed. The forty men rode away.
Ali Baba climbed down the tree and looked around to see if anybody was there. He went towards the same rock and said the words, “Open Sesame.”
The rock again swung open. Ali Baba went in. It was a cave. Inside was stacked lots of gold and jewellery. He took as much as he wanted and he was being very careful not to disturb anything as the thieves might get suspicious. Ali Baba hurried home to tell his wife what had happened.
Ali Baba’s wife was overjoyed to see so much gold.
She said, “Let us weigh this gold. Why don’t you go to your brother Cassim’s house and get a weighing scale.”
When Ali Baba went to ask Cassim for the scale, Cassim’s wife got suspicious and stuck some wax on the bottom of the scale.
Ali Baba and his wife happily weighed all the gold, not knowing that a gold coin had got stuck to the wax planted by Cassim’s wife. Ali Baba returned the scales. When Cassim’s cunning wife saw the gold coin, she told Cassim about it.
Ali Baba was sent for. Cassim threatened him to tell the truth. Ali Baba told Cassim about the thieves, the rock-door and the gold. Cassim was excited.
He said, “I want some of that gold too. I will leave for the cave right away.”
Cassim was the rich brother to Ali Baba but very greedy.
Cassim reached the rock-door and said the words, “Open Sesame.”
The rock-door opened. Cassim went inside and the rock-door closed. He saw the gold and treasures. Cassim had brought two bags with him. He started filling the bags with the treasures.
When his bags were full he turned to leave. Suddenly he realised he had forgotten the words that would open the rock-door. He panicked and started shouting for help and he was hoping someone could hear him. No one did except the thieves. On their return they saw a screaming and frightened Cassim with packed bags of their stolen treasure. Cassim was put to death.
Cassim’s wife had waited for his return the whole day. When he did not come, she went to Ali Baba’s house and pleaded with him to go and see what had happened to Cassim.
Ail Baba suspected the worst. He again went to the cave and said the magic words and entered the cave. He found his brother Cassim murdered by the thieves. He was heartbroken and wished Cassim was not so greedy. But it was too late.
Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves
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