Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves PDF

 "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" is a popular folk tale from the collection One Thousand and One Nights, famously added by its French translator Antoine Galland in the 18th century.

Here's a summary of the story:

Ali Baba is a poor woodcutter living in Persia with his wife. His older brother, Cassim, is wealthy and greedy. One day, while cutting wood in the forest, Ali Baba overhears a band of forty thieves approaching a secret cave. He hides in a tree and watches as their leader opens the cave by uttering the magic words, "Open Sesame!" The thieves enter, deposit their treasure, and then leave, closing the cave with "Close Sesame!"

After the thieves depart, Ali Baba ventures to the cave, uses the magic words, and enters. He is astonished by the vast riches inside but, being a modest man, only takes a single bag of gold coins. He returns home and shares his discovery with his wife.

Ali Baba's wife, eager to weigh the gold, borrows a scale from Cassim's wife. Cassim's wife, suspicious of her poor sister-in-law having gold, puts a bit of wax on the scale, which catches a gold coin. When she returns the scale, she discovers the coin and informs Cassim. Driven by greed, Cassim pressures Ali Baba to reveal the secret of the cave.

Cassim, taking several mules, goes to the cave, enters with "Open Sesame!", and is overcome by the immense treasure. In his excitement, he forgets the magic words to exit the cave. When the thieves return, they find Cassim trapped inside and kill him, displaying his dismembered body to deter others.

Ali Baba becomes concerned when Cassim doesn't return and goes to the cave, where he finds his brother's body. He brings it back and, with the help of Morgiana, a clever slave-girl from Cassim's household, arranges for Cassim's body to be sewn back together and buried discreetly, making it appear as a natural death.

The thieves, realizing someone else knows their secret, send a scout to find the person responsible. The scout learns about Cassim's "death" and, with the help of a shoemaker who had stitched the body, locates Ali Baba's house. To mark the house for the other thieves, he draws a chalk mark on the door. However, Morgiana, ever vigilant, notices the mark and proceeds to mark all the neighboring doors in the same way, foiling the thieves' plan. The furious leader kills the scout.

Another thief tries, chipping a piece off Ali Baba's doorstep to mark the house. Again, Morgiana thwarts the plan by making similar chips on other doorsteps. This thief also meets his demise.

Finally, the cunning leader of the thieves devises a plan. He disguises himself as an oil merchant and comes to Ali Baba's house seeking hospitality for the night, bringing with him 38 large oil jars, each containing a hidden thief, with only one jar actually holding oil. During the night, Morgiana discovers the thieves hiding in the jars. She then boils oil and pours it into each of the 38 jars, killing all the thieves. The leader escapes.

Determined for revenge, the leader later establishes himself as a merchant, befriends Ali Baba's son (who has taken over Cassim's business), and is invited to dine at Ali Baba's house. Morgiana recognizes him through his disguise during a performance. In a dramatic dance, she subtly takes a dagger and stabs the thief leader, finally bringing an end to the threat.

Ali Baba, grateful for Morgiana's repeated acts of loyalty and quick thinking, frees her and marries her to his son. Ali Baba and his family live happily, inheriting the vast treasure of the forty thieves, using it wisely, and keeping the secret of the cave within their family. The story teaches lessons about the dangers of greed and the value of cleverness, loyalty, and prudence.