Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

The story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is one of the best-known tales from the collection known as, Arabian Nights. In the original story, Ali Baba’s brother marries a wealthy woman and lives a lavish life while Ali Baba, who marries a poor village girl, seems destined to spend his life as a poor woodcutter.

Fortunes change quickly when Ali Baba accidentally discovers a cave filled with the loot of many robberies committed by a band of forty thieves.

Unfortunately, sharing his knowledge leads to the gruesome murder of his brother and a number of attempts to find and kill Ali Baba, all of which are miraculously foiled by a lowly, but clever, servant girl named, Morgiana. .

Modern translations of this story have filtered out much of the harsher portions to make it suitable for children, but the early versions such as this one should perhaps be reserved for adults

The story raises some moral questions about how far one should go in seeking revenge, whether or not it is right to profit from stolen goods, etc.

The author of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is unknown. One of its many translators, Richard F. Burton, claims it was in the orginal, One Thousand and One Nights, later known as, Arabian Nights, but others insist it originated far earlier.