Tag Archives: PERSIAN TALES
1. ALIBABA AND 40 THIEVES
IN former days there lived in a town of Persia two brothers, one named Kasim, and the other ‘Ali Baba. Their father divided a small inheritance equally between them. Kasim married a rich wife, and became a wealthy merchant. ‘Ali Baba married a woman as poor as himself, and lived by cutting wood and bringing it upon three asses into the town to sell.
One day, when ‘Ali Baba was in the forest, and had just cut wood enough to load his asses, he saw at a distance a great cloud of dust approaching him. He observed it with attention, and distinguished soon after a body of horsemen, whom he suspected to be robbers. He determined to leave his asses in order to save himself; so climbed up a large tree, planted on a high rock, the branches of which were thick enough to conceal him, and yet enabled him to see all that passed without being discovered…. ……….