Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (290)

Ali Baba was such a poor man that he had only one shoe for his two feet. Even the mice in his house were hungry. One day, his wife said, "We have no food in the house. No rice. No potatoes. Go and collect leaves in the forest so that I can make a soup."

Ali was a lazy man. He looked for leaves for about ten minutes and then he climbed a tree to sleep. He was afraid of wolves. When he woke up, he was surprised to see forty thieves on forty horses. They stopped in front of a big rock. "Open Sesame!" shouted the leader.

A door on the rock opened. The thieves carried sacks full of gold into the cave. When they had finished, the leader shouted. "Close Sesame!" and the door closed. As soon as the thieves had disappeared Ali Baba jumped down from the tree, said, "Open Sesame" and went into the cave.

There were shelves all around the walls. The shelves were full of sacks. And the sacks were full of gold. Ali took a sack home with him. Unfortunately, one of the thieves saw Ali's footprints on the sand. He followed them to Ali's home. He took out his knife and made a cross on the door. "Now I shall know which house it is," he said.

He rode off to get the other thieves. But Ali had seen the thief. He and his wife took brooms and swept away the footprints. Then he made crosses on every door at the street. When the forty thieves arrived they had their knives between their teeth. But they couldn't find either Ali – or the gold. And Ali and his wife lived happily ever after.

source: BSE; XI grade