History Literature / AliBabaAndTheFortyThieves

* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: The robbers cut Kasim's body into four parts.

* HypercompetentSidekick: Ali Baba's slave girl Morgiana singlehandedly thwarts all the thieves' attempts on his life before he even realizes he's in danger.

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: In order to infiltrate Ali-Baba's house the chief bandit poses as an oil merchant and hides his men in large oil jars. (One of the jars actually does contain oil, to keep up the ruse). When Morgiana discovers the hiding bandits, she dispatches them all with boiling oil.

* HyperCompetentSidekick: Ali Baba's slave girl Morgiana singlehandedly thwarts all the thieves' attempts on his life before he even realizes he's in danger.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: In the original tale Kasim is killed by the titular thieves after they discover him in their cave. The thieves themselves are all dead by the end of the tale. Kid-friendly adaptations typically spare Kasim by having him simply imprisoned by the thieves (and later rescued by Ali Baba), while the thieves end up in jail rather than dead.

* InnocentSoprano: In the Soviet musical adaptation, Ali Baba's wife, TheIngenue Zainab, has a very high voice, in contrast to the ContraltoOfDanger of Kasim's savvier and less scrupulous wife Fatima.

* GoodIsDumb: Ali Baba is so incredibly dutiful and virtuous that he completely misses several attempts on his life until Morgiana has already foiled them.

* SiblingYinYang: Kasim is greedy and impetuous; Ali Baba is prudent and patient. Kasim's vices lead to his downfall; Ali Baba's virtues keep his family prosperous (though he still would have been toast without Morgiana).
* SisterhoodEliminatesCreep: In some versions, Ali Baba's wife Zainab and Qasim's widow Fatima take Morgiana's role. Zainab gets the robber chief Hassan drunk and Fatima kills him. Technically, there are thirty-eight more robbers, but they are such idiots that Fatima disposes of them within seconds, and only Hassan is really dangerous.

"Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" is a story from the ''Literature/ArabianNights'' originally written by Syrian Maronite writer Hanna Diyab.

Although the story is best-known as part of the ''Arabian Nights'', and is one of the best-known stories from the ''Arabian Nights'', it was originally written by Syrian Maronite writer Hanna Diyab in the early 18th century. Diyab had recounted the story to Antoine Galland, the French translator, at Galland's request, who went on to include the story in the ''Thousand and One Nights'' without crediting him. This theft was exposed when Diyab's autobiography was found in 1993 and greatly expanded our understanding of some of the most popular tales from the collection such as "Literature/{{Aladdin}}" (which Diyab is also the original author of).

* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: The robbers cut Kasim's body into four parts

* AdoptAServant: Some interpretations say that Morgiana was basically this.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: In the original tale Kasim is killed by the titular thieves after they discover him in their cave. The thieves themselves are all dead by the end of the tale. Kid-friendly adaptations typically spare Kasim by having him simply imprisoned by the thieves (and later rescued by Ali Baba), while the thieves end up in jail rather than dead.

Although the story is best-known as part of the ''Arabian Nights'', and is one of the best-known stories from the ''Arabian Nights'', it was originally written by Syrian Maronite writer Hanna Diyab in the early 18th century. Diyab had recounted the story to Antoine Galland, the French translator, at Galland's request and went on to include them in the ''Thousand and One Nights'' without crediting him. This theft was exposed when Diyab's autobiography was found in 1993 and greatly expanded our understanding of some of the most popular tales from the collection such as Literature/{{Aladdin}} (which Diyab is also the original author of).

* RichSiblingPoorSibling: Ali Baba and Kassim are sons of a merchant but while Kassim grew up to be a greedy merchant with a wealthy wife, Ali Baba is a woodcutter and marries a poor wife. However, when Ali Baba struck luck of finding a thieves' hideout and took some of the wealth, Kassim demand the location of the hideout. This ended up getting him killed when the thieves found him in their hideout.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Depending on the version of the story, Ali Baba's brother is either spelled "Kasim", "Cassim", or "Kasym".

* StupidEvil: The Forty Thieves are obsessed with finding Ali Baba to silence him, and just don't know when to quit. They spend a fortune to find the place (as the tailor gets smart and charges a larger fee each time) two of them are killed by the leader for messing up, and when they finally ''do'' find his house, ''all'' of them but the leader are killed in the attempt. But the leader ''still'' doesn't give up, and his final attempt gets ''him'' killed. Relocating and setting up shop elsewhere may have been the smart thing, but they clearly lacked smarts.