علی بابا و چهل دزد

Chapter seven

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

Kasim and Ali Baba were brothers. Kasim was rich with a shop, a fine house and a lovely garden. Ali Baba had very little money. He was a woodcutter with only two donkeys and a very small house. So the two brothers didn’t often meet.

One day, Ali Baba wanted to cut wood. He took his two donkeys and walked a long way. He came to a mountain. There were a lot of good trees at the bottom of the mountain. But suddenly he heard the sound of horses.

To Ali Baba the sound meant only one thing - thieves! Quickly, he pushed his donkeys away and climbed a tree.

Ali Baba was right. They were thieves -forty thieves. They stopped near Ali Baba’s tree and got down from their horses. Ali Baba was very afraid, but the thieves didn’t see him.

The first thief went to the mountain. He stood in front of it and said very quietly, ‘Open, Sesame!’ Then the wall of the mountain opened and there was a large cave.

The thieves carried bags into the cave and the mountain closed behind them. Then they came out again and got on their horses. They went away through the trees.

Ali Baba was very surprised. When everything was quiet, he came down from his tree. He went to the mountain. He stood in front of it and said, ‘Open, Sesame!’

The wall of the mountain opened and Ali Baba went into the cave. It was very dark inside. He couldn’t see anything for a short time. Then he saw a lot of gold and other beautiful things.

Ali Baba found his donkeys. He put the gold in two bags and put firewood on the top. Then he went home.

It was very late when Ali Baba arrived home. He carried the bags into his house and showed the gold to his wife. She was very surprised and happy.

The next day, Ali Baba’s wife met Kasim’s wife in the town. Kasim’s wife liked to know everything.

‘Why are you happy today?’ she asked.

‘Something happened to Ali Baba yesterday’ answered his wife. ‘It’s very exciting.

Now we’re going to be rich.’

Kasim’s wife went home and told her husband about Ali Baba. Kasim went to Ali Baba’s house.

‘Brother, my wife says you’re going to be rich,’ he said. ‘Please tell me. How did it happen?’

Ali Baba said nothing, but Kasim asked again and again. In the end, Ali Baba told his brother about the cave in the mountain.

Next morning, Kasim left home early and took twenty donkeys with him. He found the mountain and opened the cave. Then he went inside and the mountain closed behind him.

Kasim could think only of gold. He carried twenty bags of gold to the mouth of the cave. He wanted to open the cave again, but he couldn’t remember the right words.

‘Open, mountain!’ he said. Then, ‘Open, cave!’ He tried a hundred ways. But the mountain didn’t move.

Suddenly the forty thieves came back and saw the donkeys outside the cave. They opened the cave and ran inside. They found Kasim inside and they killed him with their knives.

‘Let’s cut this dead man into pieces,’ they said. ‘Perhaps other people know about this place too. When they see the pieces, they’ll be afraid.’

They cut Kasim into four pieces and left the pieces inside the cave. Then they took his twenty donkeys and went away.

Night came, but Kasim didn’t come home. His wife went to Ali Baba. ‘Please, go and look for my husband,’ she said.

So Ali Baba took his two donkeys and walked all night. In the morning he came to the mountain. ‘Open, Sesame!’ he said, and the cave opened.

He saw the four pieces of his brother on the ground.

‘The forty thieves did this,’ he thought. ‘Where are they now? Perhaps they’ll come back. I have to be quick.’ He put the four pieces of Kasim into a bag and went home.

Ali Baba didn’t want people to ask questions about Kasim: ‘Why is Kasim dead? ‘‘Who killed him? Where?” How?’ He didn’t want everybody to know about the cave.

Kasim had a very clever servant girl, Marjana. Marjana always knew the answer to a problem. She went to a doctor in the town. ‘Please, sir,’ she said to the doctor. ‘Kasim is very ill. Please give me something for him.’

In this way, the story quickly went round the town: Kasim was very ill. The next day, Marjana went to the doctor again. Later that day, Kasim’s wife and Marjana began to cry loudly. People in the houses near Kasim’s house heard them.

‘Listen,’ people said. ‘Kasim’s wife and servant are crying. Kasim was very ill and now he’s dead.’

‘Now everybody knows Kasim is dead,’ said Ali Baba.’ But he’s in four pieces. We can’t put him into the ground. People will see him and ask questions:

“Why is Kasim in four pieces?”

“Who cut him into pieces?”

“Where?”’

Again, Marjana had an idea. In the town there was an old shoemaker. His eyes were very bad and he couldn’t see anything. But he was very good at his work. Marjana went to his house and gave the old man some gold.

‘Come with me, and I’ll give you more gold,’ she said. ‘I have four pieces of something. I want you to make the four pieces into one piece.’

She gave him the four pieces of Kasim. The old man worked hard all night. In the morning, Kasim was in one piece again, and they put him into the ground.

Ali Baba and his wife and children moved into Kasim’s house with Kasim’s wife and Marjana. They lived happily for a time. But the story didn’t end there. Other people weren’t very happy - the forty thieves.