Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
Classical Stories · No. 14 — Open sesame — and the servant girl who out-thought forty thieves.
- Classical Stories
- 49 min
- Ages 8–13
- 8 chapters
About this audiobook
A poor woodcutter hiding in a tree watches forty riders halt at a cliff, and hears their captain speak the words that open the rock: open sesame. Inside is the hoard of generations of robbery, and Ali Baba takes only what a donkey can carry — but a secret shared is a secret leaking, and soon his rich brother's greed leaves a corpse in the cave, the thieves are hunting the second man who knows, and the only mind in Baghdad sharp enough to stop them belongs to Morgiana, the household's servant girl, who is about to out-think all forty of them.
Why it's worth a listen
The most famous password in the world opens a cave of treasure — and a story where the person on the title page is not the person who saves the day. Morgiana the servant girl notices everything: the chalk mark on the door, the oil jars that whisper, the dinner guest who will not eat salt. Count how many times she saves Ali Baba's life, then decide whose story this really is.
A question to keep
Who is the real hero of a story — the one it is named after, or the one who does the saving?
Chapters
- Introduction
- The Woodcutter and the Whispering Rock
- The Weight of Gold and the Forgotten Word
- The Cobbler Who Sewed in the Dark
- The Girl Who Saw the Chalk
- Thirty-Eight Jars of Oil
- The Salt and the Dagger
- A Question to Keep