The Story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
At a Glance
- Central figures: Ali Baba, a poor woodcutter who stumbles upon a thieves’ cave; Morgiana, his quick-witted servant; Kasim, Ali Baba’s greedy brother; and the leader of forty thieves who seeks revenge.
- Setting: A forest and household in an unnamed city, drawn from the tale tradition of One Thousand and One Nights.
- The turn: Ali Baba overhears the magic words “Open, Sesame” and uses them to enter the cave, taking gold - setting in motion the thieves’ hunt for whoever discovered their secret.
- The outcome: The forty thieves are killed one by one through Morgiana’s actions; their leader is slain at Ali Baba’s own table, and Ali Baba inherits the cave’s treasure unchallenged.
- The legacy: Morgiana is freed and welcomed into Ali Baba’s family as a reward for saving his life twice; the cave and its wealth pass entirely to Ali Baba, its secret intact.
It is told that a woodcutter named Ali Baba was cutting timber in the forest when he heard horses and voices coming through the trees - too many, and moving too quickly for ordinary travelers. He scrambled up into the branches and kept still. Forty men rode beneath him, each loaded with sacks, and their leader dismounted before a bare rock face and called out two words. The rock opened. The men went inside. When they came out again, the leader called two more words and the rock closed as if it had never parted.
Ali Baba waited until the forest was quiet, then climbed down. He had heard every word.
”Open, Sesame”
He said it aloud himself, half-expecting nothing. The boulder split. Inside was a cave stacked floor to ceiling with gold coins, silk, jewels, and the accumulated plunder of years. Ali Baba did not try to carry it all. He took what he could load onto his donkeys and went home, where he spread the coins on the floor and sat quietly looking at them for a long time. He told his wife, and they agreed to say nothing.
His brother Kasim noticed the change in Ali Baba’s circumstances soon enough - a new ease, small spending, a loosening of the old tightness around the eyes. Kasim pressed him until Ali Baba gave up the secret: the cave, the road through the forest, and both words.
Kasim in the Cave
Kasim went the next morning with ten mules and an appetite for everything inside. The cave opened for him without trouble. He loaded sack after sack, piling them by the entrance, and it was only when he turned to leave that his mind went blank. He could not remember the word. He tried barley. He tried wheat. He tried the names of every grain he knew, pacing and shouting at the rock, while outside the light moved across the sky. When the thieves returned and found a stranger inside their cave, they dealt with him. Ali Baba learned of it only when he went looking for his brother.
The Oil Jars
The thieves knew from what they found that someone else was aware of their secret. Their leader was a capable man - cold, patient, and methodical. He traced the connection to Ali Baba’s household and arrived at the door disguised as an oil merchant, asking for a night’s lodging. He brought with him a cart of large oil jars. Thirty-seven of those jars did not contain oil.
Morgiana, Ali Baba’s servant, went out late in the night to take oil for a lamp. The first jar she tapped whispered up at her in the dark: Is it time? She did not run, did not call out. She went to the one jar that actually held oil, heated it to boiling in a pot, and worked her way down the row, jar by jar, until the cart was silent. Then she went back inside and waited for morning.
The Dancer and the Dagger
The leader had escaped - he was sleeping in the house itself, not in a jar. He came back weeks later in a new disguise, as a merchant invited to dine. Morgiana spotted him. She recognized the set of his face and the way he watched the doors.
At the evening’s entertainment, she danced for the guests, dagger in hand, moving through the patterns of a performance that Ali Baba and his company had seen before. At the turn of the final figure, she brought the blade across the merchant’s chest. The disguise came away with him as he fell.
Ali Baba stood over the body and understood what had been done for him.
What Remained
He freed Morgiana that same night and gave her his nephew in marriage, so she became family by law as well as by loyalty. The cave in the forest remained where it had always been. Ali Baba kept the words to himself - he is said to have visited the cave carefully, over many years, taking only what his household needed, and in time he passed the secret to his son. The forty thieves were gone. The treasure stayed. And the boulder sat unmarked among the trees, waiting for the right words from whoever might one day find it again.