열려라 참깨

In one city there was a man called Ali Baba. He lived by cutting wood and selling it at the market. His brother, in the same city, traded and was comfortable.

One day, cutting wood in the hills, he hears hooves. There were many of them and they were not ordinary men. He got himself up a tree at once.

The band stopped in front of a large rock. The man at the front said one thing to the rock. The rock split, and they went inside.

The Words Heard from a Tree

Ali Baba held his breath and learned those words. Some while later they came out, said something else, and the rock closed. The words for going in and the words for coming out were not the same.X-ray

Once they were far off he comes down. He stood in front of the rock and said what he had heard. It really did split.

Inside was a wide room. Cloth and vessels and gold were stacked to the walls. Things that had come over years from many people.

How Much to Take

Ali Baba stood there for a moment. He could take all of it and he could take none of it. What he settled on was as much gold as a donkey would carry.

He filled a few sacks, said the words for coming out, and closed the rock. At home he tells his wife what happened. Rather than count it, the two of them decided to measure it.

They had no measure, so he went to his brother’s house to borrow one. In that house they were curious about what was being measured. So they put something under it that things would stick to.

His Brother Goes to That Place

There was a gold coin stuck under the measure that came back. Qasim goes straight to Ali Baba. Ali Baba did not hide it. He told him the place and the words.

Before dawn Qasim took several donkeys up into the hills. He said what he had been told in front of the rock and the door opened. Inside, he started filling sacks.

He filled and filled, and then he stood at the door. The words for coming out would not come to him. He tried words that sounded like them, several times, and the rock stayed shut.

Know only the words for going in and that place becomes a place that holds you. That evening the band came back and found him there. Qasim did not come out of there alive.

The Night He Brought His Brother Home

When his brother did not come back, Ali Baba goes to that place. He opened the rock, went in, and found him. He put him on a donkey, covered him with wood, and came home by night.

At home he decides to let none of this out. If it becomes known how his brother died, the place becomes known too.X-ray And then half the city goes up into those hills.

The one who helped him that night worked in his brother’s house.X-ray She knew how a thing like this is got through quietly. Her name was Marjana.

Up in the hills the band finds that the body is gone. Which meant somebody else knew the place. They decide to come down into the city and find that person.

Today, Taking What Was Stolen

This chapter leaves one question it does not settle. Is taking what thieves piled up stealing? Ali Baba took nothing directly from anybody.

And yet those things had owners of their own. That a thief is holding something does not make its owner disappear. No road back to those owners appears anywhere in this story.

Only one thing serves as a measure here. He did not take it all. He took what a donkey would carry. His brother, standing in the same place, had no such measure and no words for coming out.

We stand in front of things that look ownerless too. What we settle then is not whether to take but how much. Fail to settle it right there and later there is no settling it at all.

This story goes by Ali Baba’s name. But the one who actually does the work is somebody else in the next chapter. The one who stops that band is the person in this house who had a price.