Ali Baba and his brother, Cassim, were the sons of a merchant. After their father’s death, Cassim married a rich woman and took over their father’s business. Cheated out of his inheritance, Ali Baba became a woodcutter and married a poor woman.

One day, when Ali Baba was in the forest cutting wood, he heard a loud rumble. Thinking it was a scary animal, he climbed on top of a tree and waited. There was dust flying all over.

Finally, when the dust settled, he saw many men getting off their horses and standing in front of a huge rock with bags in their hands.

“I wonder who these men are,” thought Ali Baba, having counted forty men. “And what are they doing here.”

Suddenly, one man who looked like the captain shouted, “OPEN SESAME.”

Lo, behold, the rock was actually a cave. The entrance of the cave opened and the men went inside with their bags.

After a few minutes, they came out without their bags, shouted “CLOSE SESAME,” and left in their horses. The entrance vanished and the cave looked like a rock again.

Getting down from the tree, Ali Baba thought, “Were those men thieves hiding their loot? Let me go and see what is in the cave.”

He got down the tree, went to the cave and yelled, “OPEN SESAME.”

When the cave opened, he went in and saw to his wonder treasures everywhere – gold, silver, diamonds, and other gems. After filling his bag with the coins when he turned to leave, he saw the cave had closed by itself.

He again said, “OPEN SESAME” and got out of the cave. After sealing the entrance, he went home and showed the gold to his wife.

His wife was ecstatic seeing the gold and said, “All our troubles are over. We should weigh the gold to see how much we have. Let me go to your brother’s home and get a pair of scales from our sister-in-law.”

Saying so, the lady went to Cassim’s house. She met Cassim’s wife and said, “Can we borrow your scales today, sister? I will return as soon as I can.”

Cassim’s wife was curious. “Why does she want the scales? It is not like they have sacks of wood or grains to weigh. Let me stick this small piece of wax to find out,” she thought and did so.

After taking the scale home, Ali Baba and his wife weighed the gold. Being simple folks, they were happy that they had enough to tide over for a few months, at least. Ali Baba’s wife then took back the scale to Cassim’s house.

At Cassim’s house, his wife eagerly checked the scales and was shocked to find gold stuck to the wax. “Where did the gold come? Let me make Cassim go and enquire,” she thought greedily.

Cassim went to Ali Baba and asked him, “Where did you get the gold, Ali? You have suddenly become rich, and yet you did not tell about it to your brother?”

Ali Baba was an innocent man who thought good of everyone. Wanting to share his good fortune with his brother, he shared the cave’s secret and how to open it.

Not wanting to wait even a moment, Cassim immediately took three donkeys and ten bags to the cave. He opened the cave and was astounded to see the sight in front of him.

At first, not knowing what to take, he began filling each of his sacks one by one with every precious item possible. His greed was so much that he could not stop gathering more and more and lost track of time.

When finally, he decided to leave, he realized he could not. He had forgotten the magic word.

Panicking, he yelled, “OPEN WHEAT.” Nothing happened. He again screamed, “OPEN BARLEY,” and nothing happened. Cassim got worried and wholly ignored the treasure.

While Cassim was thus panicking, the thieves returned. When they found Cassim in the cave, they were enraged. Wanting to set an example to anyone who steals from them, they quickly killed Cassim and left him inside the cave.

Meanwhile, Cassim’s wife grew worried when her husband did not return. She went to Ali Baba and asked for his help to find her husband. Ali Baba went to the cave and saw his dead brother inside the cave.

Mourning for his brother but at the same time worried the robbers would return, Ali Baba, took his brother’s body back with him.

He called a girl called Morgiana, who worked for him. “Morgiana, someone killed my brother. But I do not want anyone to come enquiring about the same. Can you make it look like my brother died a natural death? Please ensure all the injuries in his body are covered,” he said.

Morgiana was a clever and resourceful girl. She brought a cobbler home to sew all the injuries in Cassim’s body. Finally, Ali Baba was able to give his brother a proper burial.

When the thieves came back to the cave, they found Cassim’s body missing. “Someone else knows the location of our treasure. One of you go and enquire in the neighboring town if there was any death recently. We cannot have anyone else stealing from us,” said the captain to his men.

One of the men entered Ali Baba’s town and started talking around. As luck would have it, he met the cobbler first. “Sir, have you heard of anyone who died recently?” he asked.

The cobbler, who was a big gossip, replied, “Yes. A man by the name of Cassim died recently. What is unusual is Cassim’s brother Ali Baba sent his servant to me to sew Cassim’s body.”

Triumphantly, the thief replied, “Do you know his house?”

“Of course. But why should I tell you?” grinned the cobbler wickedly.

The thief gave a coin to the cobbler, who promptly pocketed it. “Come, I will take you to Ali Baba’s house.”

The thief, not wanting to be seen by Ali Baba beforehand, said, “Do me a favor, will you? Please mark an X in front of the house. I will know when I go later.”

After the cobbler agreed, the thief got the directions to Ali Baba’s street. He then went back to his band to inform his leader. “I have found the culprit, captain. I have asked his house to be marked. We can easily go and kill the man.”

The captain was very happy, “Excellent!!! If we are victorious tonight, I will reward you.”

That night, the forty thieves came into the town and entered Ali Baba’s street. “All of you spread out. If you find the mark on any of the houses, make a meow sound like a cat. I will come over there,” the captain said, standing at the entrance.

The thirty-nine men spread out and went to different houses. The first one shouted, “meow.”

The captain was about to go to that house when he heard a second “meow.”

What followed was multiple “meows” that made it sound like there was a cat invasion.

“Shut up, you fools,” whispered the captain loudly. “You will wake everyone up. Why are all of you screeching like banshees?”

“There is a mark in front of this house,” said one of the thieves.

“There is a mark in front of this house as well,” shouted all the other thieves.

The captain realized he was made a fool of and commanded his men to return to the forest.

A hidden figure, watching this, heaved a sigh of relief. It was Morgiana. What had happened was that Morgiana had noticed the mark in front of Ali Baba’s house. Sensing something fishy, she made a similar mark in front of all the houses on the street. Happy she could save her master; she went back home.

After returning to the forest, the captain, in a fit of anger, punished the thief who gave him wrong directions. Not trusting his men anymore, the next day, he went to the cobbler and got the directions to Ali Baba’s house.

He then told his men, “Purchase forty barrels and mules to carry them. Fill one of the barrels with oil, and all of you hide in the remaining barrels. I will go to Ali Baba’s house disguised as an oil merchant and spend the night there. During the night, when everyone is asleep, I will let you out, and we can together kill Ali Baba.”

The next day in the evening, the captain went to Ali Baba’s house with the barrels and knocked on his door.

When Ali Baba opened, the captain said, “I am an oil merchant. I brought oil to sell in the bazaar tomorrow. Since it is late, is there any place where I can stay the night?”

Ali Baba, always willing to help others, said, “I will be delighted to host you for the night. Please come in.”

The captain went into the house. Meanwhile, Ali Baba guided his servants to take the mules with the oil barrels to the shed.

When everyone retired for the night, Morgiana realized they were short on oil and decided to take some oil from the barrel.

When she entered the dark shed and opened the first barrel, she heard a voice, “Is it time yet?” It was one of the thieves in the barrel thinking the chief had come to call them.

Surprised at not finding any oil but instead a man, she kept a cool head realizing the possible danger. “Not yet”, she whispered changing her voice to sound like a male voice.

She repeated this with each of the barrels until she came to the fortieth barrel, which had oil. Taking some oil from the jar, she then rushed to the house and boiled it.

She returned to the shed and poured the boiling oil very quickly into all the barrels before any of the thieves could manage to wriggle out, thereby killing them all.

When the captain came during midnight to call his men, he noticed all of them dead. Worried, his identity was exposed, he ran away.

Morgiana was relieved to see him gone. The next day she related the entire story to Ali Baba, who praised and thanked her for her quick thinking.

A few days later, still thirsting for revenge, the captain again disguised himself as a silk merchant. He befriended Ali Baba’s son and came to Ali Baba’s home.

But this time, Morgiana saw him through his disguise. She began dancing to provide after-dinner entertainment and before anyone could react, plunged a knife into the captain’s heart.

Ali Baba was shocked. “Why did you do this. You killed an innocent man,” he screamed.

Morgiana replied, “This is no innocent man. He is captain of the forty robbers who has come again to kill you.”

Once convinced, Ali Baba thanked Morgiana profusely and also rewarded her. Eventually, Morgiana and Ali Baba’s son fell in love and got married.

Ali Baba was relieved the threat from the thieves were no longer there. He was now the only person who knew the secret to open the cave containing the treasure.

Eventually, he revealed the secret of the treasure to his son and all his descendants lived happily and in great prosperity.