Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

**Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves** (Arabic: علي بابا والأربعون لصا) is a middle eastern folktale in Arabic. It was added to *One Thousand and One Nights* in the 18th century. *One Thousand and One Nights* is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales. Many different versions of the story have been told till now in various languages, with some differences in title and details.

## Origin
The tale was first stored in the collection during 18th-century by a French translator named Antoine Galland, who used to study the language, culture, history, or customs of countries in Asia. He wrote the tale from the oral traditions of a Syrian Maronite storyteller Hanna Diyab. It was not a part of the original collection which was in Arabic version, but was instead added to the collection later on by Antoine Galland after he heard it from Hanna Diyab during Diyab's visit to Paris in 1709.

## Story
Years ago, two brothers named Ali baba and Cassim (also spelled Qasim) lived in Persia. After the death of their father, who was a merchant; both the brothers together managed their father's business. Elder brother Cassim was very greedy. He took over the entire business in a wrong way and threw Ali baba out of the house. After this, Ali baba went to some colony and started living a life of poverty in a hut with his wife. He used to go to the forest every day, cut wood and sell it in the market to earn his living.

One day, while Ali baba was cutting wood in the forest, he  a group of 40 thieves who were coming to their secret location with bundles of gold coins. Seeing this he understood that all of them were thieves. Ali baba hid behind a tree and started watching them. The leader of the thieves stood in front of a cave and said, "open sesame"; After this, the door of that cave opened up and all the 40 thieves went inside that cave. While going inside, the last thief said, "close seasame", and the door of the cave closed.

When the thieves and their leader left the cave, Ali baba went to the cave himself and chanted the same words, "open seasame" on which the door opened up. Ali baba then takes a single bag of gold coins to his home. After going home, Ali baba told his wife about this whole story. His wife was surprised to see so many Ashrafis-*(name of local money in Arabic)* together and sat down to count them. Then Alibaba said that there are so many gold coins that it would take whole night to count them. He dig a hole and hid the gold, so that no one suspects them. Ali baba's wife said - We cannot count them, but I can weigh them for an estimate.

Cassim made many attempts to get out of the cave, but could not find any way. He gets imprisoned inside the cave. After some time, when the gang of thieves reached there, they saw that a donkey was tied outside. They understand that someone has come here. The thieves went inside and the moment they find Cassim, they kill him.

The leader of thieves was not one to sit quietly. He sent his men to that locality to find out who had recently become rich there. From this he came to know about Ali baba. He recognized her house well and reached her house at night disguised as an oil merchant. He took with him 40 oil casks, of which 39 contained thieves and one cask contained oil. He thought that when everyone would sleep at night, they would all together kill Ali baba. He befriended Ali baba and asked permission to stay at his house for the night. Ali baba fed him and allowed him to stay for the night. **Morgiana** (Arabic: مرجانة Murjāna), a clever slave-girl from Cassim's household discovers the plan, killing the 38 thieves in their oil jars by pouring boiling oil on them. When their leader comes to call his men, he discovers they are all dead so he escapes. The next morning, Morgiana tells Ali baba about the thieves in the jars. They bury them, and Ali Baba shows his thankfulness by giving Morgiana her freedom.

Now, Ali baba was the only owner of all the treasures of those forty thieves as well as of his father's business. He had become the richest man in the country and started living happily with his wife and children.

## Gallery

File:עלי באבא מתחבא על העץ.jpg|Ali Baba  one of the thieves saying "Open Sesame".
File:Robida - Ali-baba page12.jpg|A member of the Forty Thieves tries to discover the location of the house of Ali Baba.
File:Robida - Ali-baba page13.jpg|Morgiana pours boiling hot oil into the jars in which the thirty nine Thieves were hiding.

## Related pages
* Aladdin
* Sinbad the Sailor
* Scheherazade
* Ali Baba (TV series)

## References
## Other websites
* *Arabian Nights* at the Internet Movie Database
* *Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves* (e-text, in English, at Bartleby.com)
**Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves* (Kids version at Vedantu.com)