Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves Short Story Summary
Ali Baba, a poor woodcutter discovers a cave full of gold and siver, hidden there by thieves.
He tells his brother who goes to look but is captured in the cave by the thieves. The brother tells the leader Ali Baba has been taking the gold from the cave. The leader plans to kill Ali Baba and his brother and Forty thieves go to Ali Baba’s home where they hid in big oil jars in Ali baba’s backyard. Alibaba’s daughter overhears them talking in the jars and saves her family.
Once upon a time, a very long time ago, in the country of sun, sand and pyramids, there lived a very poor man. Ali Baba, was his name, he was poor but was happy.
He had a kind wife and a lovely and smart daughter named Leia. They lived in a small yellow stone house in a small town next to some hills.
There were many trees in these hills and each and every day Ali Baba went there to cut wood. He rode to the hills on his donkey, cut the wood, put it on the donkey’s back and rode back to the town to sell it at the market.
One day when he was chopping wood, Ali Baba heard the sound of some horses.
They were approaching the hill.
‘Horses!’ he thought. ‘Horses and men. I have to hide.’
Quickly he climbed a tree and hid in the green leaves. Shortly he saw the men and the horses. They stopped near his tree. All the men were carrying bags. They looked tough and dangerous and Ali Baba knew that they were thieves.
The head of the thieves went up and stood in front of a big round stone. He put up his hands and cried, ‘Open Sesame’.
The stone opened slowly and Ali Baba could see a cave. It was big and very dark.
Quickly the thieves put their bags in the cave. Then the leader put up his hands again and said loudly, ‘Close Sesame’. The stone moved slowly and gradually back. The men got on their horses and rode away.
Ali Baba anxiously waited in the tree until he could no longer hear the sound of the horses. He was still scared but he climbed down and walked over to the stone.He put up his hands and whispered, ‘Open Sesame’.
The stone moved and Ali Baba walked into the cave. He could not believe his eyes!
The cave was full of gold and silver.Everywhere he looked he saw gold, gold boxes, gold animals, and bags of gold and silver.
Quickly Ali Baba took a bag of gold coins and ran out of the cave.
‘Close Sesame!’ he cried and the stone moved back slowly.
He ran to his donkey, which was still hiding in the trees, put the gold on its back, and rode home as quick as he could.
‘Look what I have found,’ he cried to his wife. When she looked in the bag, her eyes grew round with big surprise.
Gold coins!’ she said. ‘Hundreds of gold coins! Ali Baba, where did you get them?’
Ali Baba told her about the thieves and the rock and the cave full of gold and silver.‘Oh, we are going to get rich,’ she said. ‘Leia,’ she cried to her daughter.
‘Leia, come here. Come and see what your father has found.’
When Leia saw the gold coins, she said happily, ‘I will go and get the weighing scales from Aunt Kasima. We need to know how much they weigh. Then we will know how rich we are.’
She went quickly and came back with the scales.
Ali Baba’s wife weighed the coins.
‘Oh, we are rich, very, very rich! We will buy a brand new house, and I will buy new outfits for all of us. Leia, take the scales back to your aunt and give her this gold coin.’
That evening, Aunt Kasima showed the coin to her husband, Ali Baba’s brother, Kasim.‘Look,’ she said. ‘Look what we got from your brother.’
Kasim looked at the gold coin and whispered, ‘Oh no, is my brother a thief?’
That night he did not sleep well. Next early morning he went to talk to his brother.
‘Ali Baba, where did you get this gold coin?’ he questioned. ‘Are you a thief?’
Ali Baba laughed. ‘No brother, I’m not a thief, but I’ve found a cave where thieves hide their gold.’
He told Kasim about the cave and the thieves and the gold. He told him about the stone.
‘I will take you there tomorrow,’ he said.
Kasim went home but all morning he thought about the cave and the gold.
‘I don’t want to wait until tomorrow, I can’t wait until tomorrow! he thought.
So in the afternoon he rode quickly to the cave by himself.
He stood in front of the stone and said, ‘Open Sesame’.
The stone moved and Kasim walked into the cave.
Everywhere he looked he saw gold.
‘Gold! So much gold!’ he cried.‘Oh, I’m rich, very rich.
Suddenly he heard the sound of horses outside the cave. He tried to hide, but he was too late. The thieves, forty of them, came into the cave.
When they saw Kasim, they took out their long knives.
‘Who are you?’ cried the leader. ‘What are you doing in our cave? Catch him, men. He is trying to steal our gold.’
‘Please, please don’t kill me!’ Kasim cried. He was very, very scared.
‘I didn’t want to take your gold. I was just looking. My brother, Ali Baba, told me it was here. He found the cave and took some gold. Please, please don’t kill me.’
The leader of the thieves said, Tell us where your brother lives, and you can go home.’
But when Kasim told him, he laughed a awful laugh.
Tie him up men. We will find this Ali Baba and our gold. Then we will kill him and his brother.’
The leader told the thieves to get forty big oil containers.
‘Men, I’m going to put oil in one jar and you are going to hide in the other jars. I will take the jars to Ali Baba’s house. Then, in the middle of the night, when everyone is sleeping, I will open the jars.
You will climb out and kill Ali Baba and his family and we will get our gold back.’
Then the leader put oil in one jar and the thirty-nine thieves climbed into the other thirty-nine jars.
The leader put the oil jars onto the horses and walked with them to Ali Baba’s house. He knocked on the door.
‘Good evening, kind friend. Can you help me, please? I have come from far away to sell my oil at the market. It’s now night time and the market is closed. Please, can my horses and my oil jars stay in your backyard until the morning?’
‘Oh, yes, they can stay here,’ said Ali Baba, for he was a kind man and he was always happy to help people.
‘And you can sleep in my house,’ he said to the leader.
Little did Ali Baba know what the thieves were planning.
After dinner, the head of the thieves went into the garden to speak to his men. ‘Remember,’ he whispered into the jars.
‘In the night, when open your jar, climb out, go into the house, kill Ali Baba and his family, and find our gold.’
Later that evening, Leia went to get some oil. It was very quiet in the backyard.
All of a sudden she heard whispers from the jars. ‘It’s cold in here.’ ‘I need to move.’
Leia listened and realized.
The thieves from the cave are in these jars. I will teach them a lesson,’ she thought.
In the house she made some oil very hot. Then she put a little in every jar.
‘Oh, ouch,’ cried the thieves. One by one they jumped out of the jars and ran away as fast as they could. Their leader ran away too.
They were so terrified, they ran for a long time before they stopped. They did not come back to Ali Baba’s house and they never went back to their cave again.
A couple of days later, when Ali Baba was sure that the thieves were not coming back, he went to the cave and found his brother Kasim, cold, frightened, but living.
They cried together and then they laughed together. Then they took some more gold and went home. The two families and all their friends were now very rich and lived happily ever after.
Moral: Never Lean Before Greed
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