History Literature / AliBabaAndTheFortyThieves

'''"Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves"''' is a story from the ''Literature/ArabianNights''.

* HeKnowsTooMuch: At first, this is the reason why the Bandit Chief devotes so much time to finding and killing Ali Baba, to keep the location of his horde a secret. (When all his men are dead, however, it becomes a matter of self-preservation.)

* 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 ''himself'' killed. Relocating and setting up shop elsewhere may have been the smart thing, but they clearly lacked smarts.

Ali Baba, a poor woodcutter, stumbles on the treasure cave of a band of robbers, which is magically sealed and must be opened by speaking the words "Open Sesame". He takes some of the treasure from the cave and becomes rich. His brother Kasim, a wealthy merchant, finds out Ali Baba suddenly had money, and learns how to get to the cave. Cassim is discovered by the robbers when he forgets the magic word to open the door, and is killed and his body cut into quarters and hung up at the entrance to the cave to warn others. Ali Baba comes to the cave, finds his brother's body, and retrieves it. The robbers discover the body is missing and come in search of whoever removed it. Their attempts to identify Ali Baba and then to kill him are repeatedly foiled by the clever slave-girl Morgiana, and all the thieves wind up dead. Morgiana marries Ali Baba's son, Ali Baba marries Kasim's wife, and the family lives happily ever after.

* {{Greed}}: Kasym's FatalFlaw. He apparently intends to loot the whole treasure cave in one take, lingers too long and forgets the password.

** This same tactic is used by one of the money-guarding dogs in the Creator/HansChristianAndersen tale "Literature/TheTinderbox".

** This same tactic is used by one of the money-guarding dogs in the HansChristianAndersen tale "Literature/TheTinderbox".

* Greed: Kasym's FatalFlaw. He apparently intends to loot the whole treasure cave in one take, lingers too long and forgets the password.

* BlindfoldedTrip: Morgiana does this with Baba Mustafa the tailor, leading him to Kasim's house so Mustafa can stitch Kasim's body back together. This precaution fails when one of the bandits does the same--he blindfolds Mustafa, who uses muscle memory to successfully lead the bandit to Kasim's house.

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: In order to infiltrate Ali-Baba's house the chief bandid hides his men in large jugs that his "caravan" is carrying. Morgiana then fills those jugs with boiling oil.

* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles: One of the thieves learns the location of Ali Baba's house, and puts a mark on his door. While he's away fetching the rest of the thieves, Morgiana sees the mark, and thinking quickly she puts the same mark on every other door in the street. A second thief tries to mark the door more surreptitiously, but Morgana notices the mark anyway and does the same thing. The leader of the thieves is smarter, however, and choses to study the house and area until he memorizes the location.

* SacredHospitality: A dinner guest at Ali Baba's house says that he is unable to eat anything with salt in; his excuse is a dietary restriction, but actually he's the bandit chief, come in disguise to kill Ali Baba, and if he eats salt while he's a guest, he has "shared salt" with his host and is bound by the laws of hospitality. This is actually how Morgiana figures out the mysterious guest was the Bandit Chief.

* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles: One of the thieves learns the location of Ali Baba's house, and puts a mark on his door. While he's away fetching the rest of the thieves, Morgiana puts the same mark on every other door in the street. A second thief makes the exact same mistake. The leader of the thieves is smarter, however, and choses to study the house and area until he memorizes the location.

* PinballProtagonist: Ali Baba is the protagonist at first, but he pretty much stops being such after he recovers Kasim's body; at that point, the role is taken over by Morgiana, with Ali Baba now a supporting character.

* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles: One of the thieves learns the location of Ali Baba's house, and puts a mark on his door. While he's away fetching the rest of the thieves, Morgiana puts the same mark on every other door in the street.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Two thieves bungle the search for Ali Baba and are imprisoned by the bandit chief. After Morgiana boils 37 thieves alive and later stabs the bandit chief, those two thieves are out there somewhere--but they're never heard from again. Nor do they ever go back to the treasure cave, as Ali Baba confirms when he returns to it.

* SacredHospitality: A dinner guest at Ali Baba's house says that he is unable to eat anything with salt in; his excuse is a dietary restriction, but actually he's the bandit chief, come in disguise to kill Ali Baba, and if he eats salt while he's a guest, he has "shared salt" with his host and is bound by the laws of hospitality. [[spoiler: This is actually how Morgiana figures out the mysterious guest was the Bandit Chief.]]

Ali Baba, a poor woodcutter, stumbles on the treasure cave of a band of robbers, which is magically sealed and must be opened by speaking the words "Open Sesame". He takes some of the treasure from the cave and becomes rich. His brother Cassim, a wealthy merchant, finds out Ali Baba suddenly had money, and learns how to get to the cave. Cassim is discovered by the robbers when he forgets the magic word to open the door, and is killed and his body cut into quarters and hung up at the entrance to the cave to warn others. Ali Baba comes to the cave, finds his brother's body, and retrieves it. The robbers discover the body is missing and come in search of whoever removed it. Their attempts to identify Ali Baba and then to kill him are repeatedly foiled by the clever slave-girl Morgiana, and all the thieves wind up dead. Morgiana marries Ali Baba's son, [[spoiler:Ali Baba marries Cassim's wife]], and the family lives happily ever after.

** This same tactic is used by one of the money-guarding dogs in the HansChristianAndersen tale Literature/TheTinderbox.
* OpenSesame: TropeNamer

Ali Baba, a poor woodcutter, stumbles on the treasure cave of a band of robbers, which is magically sealed and must be opened by speaking the words "Open Sesame". He takes some of the treasure from the cave and becomes rich. His brother Cassim, a wealthy merchant, finds out Ali Baba suddenly had money, and learns how to get to the cave. Cassim is discovered by the robbers when he forgets the magic word to open the door, and is killed and his body cut into quarters and hung up at the entrance to the cave to warn others. Ali Baba comes to the cave, finds his brother's body, and retrieves it. The robbers discover the body is missing and come in search of whoever removed it. Their attempts to identify Ali Baba and then to kill him are repeatedly foiled by the clever slave-girl Morgiana, and all the thieves wind up dead. Morgiana marries Ali Baba's son, [[Spoiler: Ali Baba marries Cassim's wife]], and the family lives happily ever after.

Ali Baba, a poor woodcutter, stumbles on the treasure cave of a band of robbers, which is magically sealed and must be opened by speaking the words "Open Sesame". He takes some of the treasure from the cave and becomes rich, but the robbers discover their loss and come in search of him. Their attempts to identify him and then to kill him are repeatedly foiled by the clever slave-girl Morgiana, and all the thieves wind up dead. Morgiana marries Ali Baba's son, and the family lives happily ever after.

* SacredHospitality: A dinner guest at Ali Baba's house says that he is unable to eat anything with salt in; his excuse is a dietary restriction, but actually he's the bandit chief, come in disguise to kill Ali Baba, and if he eats salt while he's a guest, he has "shared salt" with his host and is bound by the laws of hospitality.

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 appears to be a late ring-in. The earliest existing written version is in the first European translation of the ArabianNights, published in the 18th century by Antoine Galland, and it's thought that he included the tale from a separate source.

* IAmNotShazam: Of a sort. Ali Baba is commonly mistaken is popular culture as being a member of the forty thieves, or even their leader, rather than being victimized by them.