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Shishu Sansaar | Arabian Nights Stories-2

Arabian Nights Stories-2

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Story No 44-3/4

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44-3 - Alee Baabaa and the Forty Thieves (3 of 4) : 
Robbers Find Out the Thief and Plan to Kill Him

The forty robbers came again to their cave to deposit their things they had robbed. To their surprise they found that Kaasim's body was gone and some of their bags of gold also. Their captain said - "Now it is certain that we have been discovered and if we have not taken any measures for it, we will lose everything. When we came here before, we found the man, but we killed him, now it seems that there is another one who knows our secret, so we must follow him closely." The captain said again - "I think one of you should go to town in disguise of a traveler and stranger and find out if anybody had heard about some strange death in the town. Then find out, "who he was", "where did he live" etc. This should be our first priority so that we should not do anything for which we will have to repent in an unknown country where we have lived unknown for so long, and where we have to live further like this. In fact this is just to warn the man who is causing us harm. Or do you think such a man should be killed?"

One of the robbers said - "I agree with this and I am ready to expose my life, but if I do not succeed I will not serve the troop." And this man went to the town in disguise. Wandering in the town for a while he came to Baabaa Mustafaa's shop which was open first among all shops. The robber asked him - "You start your work so early? It is really surprising that a man of your age can see that you can stitch." Mustafaa said - It seems that you are a stranger here. I have extraordinary good eyes. You will not believe that I have sewed the pieces of a dead man when there was not even this much light."

The robber got very happy to hear this news, because this is what he wanted to know and this man had told him without asking it. He said - "A dead man? What did you sew of a dead man? You mean his winding sheet." Mustafaa corrected himself - "No, no. You want me to speak out, but I will not tell you any more." The robber immediately took out a piece of gold and said to him - "I do not want to know your secret, but I assure you that I will not tell it to anyone else. Can you tell me the house where you stitched that dead body?" Mustafaa said - "I could do this favor to you but I was taken there blindfolded so I am unable to tell you this."

The robber was intelligent. He said - "You might remember something. Let me blindfold you and then you guide me to the place where you went. Or everybody is paid for his troubles, so the person who might have taken you must have given you something - a piece of gold or anything else?" And he put anther piece of gold in his hand. Two pieces were a great temptation to Mustafaa. He looked at them for a long time thinking what he should do, but soon he put them in his purse and said - "I cannot assure you, but I can try for you." The robber tied a handkerchief on his eyes and took him on the way. Mustafaa stopped just opposite the house of Kaasim, where Alee Baabaa was living now. The robber marked that house with a chalk and untied the handkerchief from Mustafaa's eyes and asked him to tell him whose house it was. Since Mustafaa did not live there he expressed his ignorance about it. The robber let him go his own way and he himself went to the forest.
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A little while after Marjeenaa came out of the house for some work and when she came back she saw a chalk mark on her house. She thought "maybe somebody wanted to harm her master or some boy was playing around, still she took the chance to protect her master, got a chalk and marked a few houses on either side of her house without saying anything to anybody.

In the meantime that robber went to his group and gave them a happy news that he had found the house in which the suspected person lived. Hearing this news their leader got very happy and said - "Let us go there immediately and find out about the house and the person." So all divided themselves in the group of two or three people and scattered all around the town and the leader and the spy who came in the morning came to find out about the house. The former spy brought the leader to Alee Baabaa's house but the spy got confused after coming there, because there was not one but several houses marked like that. The leader asked the man which house he had marked, but as several houses were marked in the same way he could not identify the one he marked. So all of them went back to their cave. The spy was killed for his carelessness.

Another man offered to do this job, so he was appointed to do it. He also proceeded in the same way, by bribing Mustafaa, but this time he marked the house at a remote place with red chalk. As Marjeenaa was already now alert for such things, she again came out of the house and saw a red chalk mark so she again marked some neighboring houses in the same way and same manner. The robbers came again on the report of the second spy, but met the same situation as the first one and the second spy also had to meet the same fate as the first one. The leader of the group became disappointed on losing his two good companions so he decided to find about it himself. He went to Mustafaa and Mustafaa showed him the house; but this time he did not mark it but just took a notice of its location.

According to his plan, he asked the robbers to purchase 19 mules and 39 large leather jars - one full of oil and others empty. He had to widen the mouths of the jar as they were not wide enough for a man to enter and he left some opening of the seam also to breath. He rubbed the 38 jars with oil from outside. He loaded 37 of those jars with his men and one jar with oil on his 19 mules and set towards Alee Baabaa's house.

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Created by Sushma Gupta on January 15, 2002
Contact:  sushmajee@yahoo.com
Modified on 09/19/13