COMMENT The Arabian Nights tale of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves has been told over the centuries, such that it is impossible for anyone growing up not to know who Ali Baba is.

Therefore there is no point for me to tell Ali Baba’s side of the story. As the focus has always been on Ali Baba, I will try to give it a different slant.

No one knows the names of the bandits, but there were 40 of them, all equally cruel and merciless.

They stole lots of money from the big merchants, including Ali Baba’s father, and to make sure that their riches were never found or were confiscated by the caliph of the day, they had to find a suitable place to hide away their gold coins, gold chains, diamond rings and all sorts of expensive jewellery.

Soon, Arab merchants found that gold was getting scarce and the value of the dinar shot up. It was of course good for the 40 thieves, but poverty became a major problem in that country.

Hidden treasure in the war chest

The hidden treasure was their war chest. They had to make sure that they had enough money to buy soldiers who would defend them, should the caliph discover their true identity and decide to arrest them.

They realised that these soldiers would turn around against them if they were not paid high wages. Supposed to serve the caliph and protect the people, these soldiers became protectors of the rich and famous thieves-turned-‘dinar’-aires.

Each of these thieves had their specialised skill - some were good at pickpocketing; others good snatch thieves; and still others were professional burglars and conmen. There were also others who used their swords.

Soon, they became among the richest men in the whole of the land, but what they had in the open was just a small fraction of the true riches that they owned collectively.

Instead of riding on camels, they were now riding on beautiful horses that reminded them of the old faithful Bucephalus belonging to Alexander the Great.

They soon became very popular. Despite not having trades, some were giving away donations of one or two dinars to the poor people in their communities. This they did for the sake of their popularity. They bought the people’s loyalty and the people appreciated these robbers so much that they started giving them important titles such as ‘The most revered Sheikh of Bhaghai’ or other similar titles.

In order to keep their treasures from being detected, they had to find a secret cave far away from the ordinary people in the major cities. One of them, nicknamed El Mo the Red, was appointed the manager of the money.

Now, among themselves, they had their own ethics and El Mo was a trusted man, who would disburse the gold dinars accordingly, based on each thief’s share. They gave him a small fraction of their shares for helping to manage the war chest.

In good times, the thieves were having jolly good happy hours, splashing away their wealth on belly dancers and enjoying themselves with the luxuries of life, while most of the people in their homeland were suffering from great poverty.

One of the thieves, an overweight man due to loving his favourite meal of Indian bread naan, had a lot of white hair some 15 years ago, but since using some natural dye, which traders from India had sold him for a few hundred dinars, his hair now looked black.

The grapevine had it that this thief had gone into a tent in the sand hills beneath the stars with two young belly dancers who then joined him. Although he was uncouth in his mannerism, the girls loved him for the jewellery that he would lavish on them.

Their fortune took a change

They continued living their luxurious lifestyle as if there was no tomorrow. Yes, these 40 thieves had a fabulous time and their wealth could last them more than 200 years, even with the way they were spending their gold dinars.

What a contrast! Their fellow countrymen were being sold as slaves, while others had to buy their freedom with their hard-earned money. Most people were just able to survive with just enough money plus a little luxury, occasionally.

Everything was fine, until one day the young man Ali Baba found the trail to the hidden treasure. Now Ali Baba had an older brother whose name was Cassim, who had married a very wealthy woman.

Despite being rich, both Cassim and his flamboyant wife were extremely greedy and wanted more in life. They never extended any help even to Ali Baba, who was only a woodcutter, after their merchant father died at the sword of one of the robbers.

Their father’s riches were all stolen by the thief and of course Ali Baba dreamt that he would some day find his father’s wealth.

“How I wish we could have just a fraction of my father’s wealth,” Ali Baba told his wife. “If not, at least teach me how one of our richest men accumulated their wealth. I wish to emulate and become rich like them, so that I can help others who are poor like me.”

Before long, the merciful Allah took pity on Ali Baba. Secretly trailing El Mo, Ali Baba discovered to his amazement the amount of wealth hidden away in the cave.

Ali Baba had learnt the secret magical words taught by the popular cartoon character Elmo - “Open O Wall, O Wall, into Sesame Street” and the rock sealing the cave would move.

Ali Baba had initially hoped that this man would give him a dinar or two, but he soon realised the source of the riches of El Mo and his friends. The rest of the people in Arabia also learnt how the robbers accumulated their wealth in the hidden cave.

We all know, but the end of the story and what happened to Cassim and his wife as well as the 40 thieves was as predictable as the squirrel which finally fell to the ground after jumping from one tree to another to avoid being shot by the hunter.

The moral of the story is that, unlike his older brother, Ali Baba was not greedy; therefore, Allah spared his life, and Ali Baba was able to return the wealth stolen by the robbers to the people of the land.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.

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