Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

In a town in Persia, long, long ago, there lived two brothers. One was named Cassim, and the other was named Ali Baba. When their father died, he divided his small inheritance equally between them. Cassim married a rich woman and became a wealthy merchant with a fine house and a well-stocked warehouse. Ali Baba married a woman as poor as himself. He had three donkeys, an axe, and a kind heart, and every morning he went out into the forest, cut wood, and led his donkeys to the marketplace to sell what he had gathered.

One day, when Ali Baba had just loaded his donkeys with wood, he saw a cloud of dust far away on the road. Soon he could see it was a band of horsemen approaching at full gallop. He counted them and came to forty men, all armed, with full saddlebags. 'These must be robbers,' thought Ali Baba, and his heart pounded hard in his chest. He tied his donkeys behind a bush and climbed up into a great tree growing on a high rock. The leaves were so thick that he was almost hidden, yet he could still see everything that happened below.

The riders halted at the foot of the rock. They tied their horses and lifted down heavy saddlebags that seemed to be full of gold and silver. The man who was their captain walked up to the cliff face, right beneath the tree where Ali Baba was hidden. He pushed aside a few branches, raised his voice, and called out two words: 'Open, Sesame!' In that very moment, something wonderful happened. A door slid open in the cliff itself, as if the mountain had awakened. The captain let his whole band enter before him, then he followed, and the door closed silently behind them, as if it had never been there.

Ali Baba scarcely dared to breathe. After a while the door opened again, and the robbers came out, one after another. The captain went last and turned toward the cliff. 'Shut, Sesame!' he said, and the door closed once more. When the hoofbeats had died away in the distance, Ali Baba climbed down. He stood a long time before the cliff, but his curiosity was greater than his fear. He took a deep breath and said for himself: 'Open, Sesame!' And the door opened for him too. Inside there was no gloomy cavern, but a high, bright hall full of silken cloths, carpets, weapons, and heaps of gold coins.