44-3
- Alee
Baabaa and the Forty Thieves:
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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