Kasim khan and few thieves

Once upon a time, there lived a pious man, named Kasim Khan on an Island of Arabian Sea. He was poor but hardworking. He was living with his wife in a small house. He used to cultivate others" land and cut firewood to both ends meet. He had a donkey for carrying firewood to sell in the town market.

One day while cutting wood, Kasim Khan found some mischievous people moving around the forest area riding on the horses. It was known to him that a set of thieves were dwelling in the forest. At one stage, their movement stopped and were talking to each other loudly. Suddenly a tall person with a beard lifted his hands up, immediately. There was no sound. Probably he was the leader of the gang. The long- bearded person stood in front of a big rock, spread his hands and shouted, ‘Open Sesame’ As soon as the rock moved, a big cave was found, where the thieves along with their bags entered one by one. They were totally ten. When the last one entered, the rock moved back to its position, closing the cave.

 

Kasim Khan climbed the tree out of fear, so that the thieves would not see him. After a long time, the rock moved. All the thieves came out. The leader stood in front of the cave and uttered ‘close Sesame.’ The door of the cave closed automatically, and the thieves rode the horses and left with ornaments kept in bags.

It was late in the night and Kasim Khan confirmed that nobody would see him at dark and exactly like the leader of gang, stood in front of the cave, spread his hands and shouted, ‘Open Sesame.’ After repeat of the same words, the door opened. Kasim Khan entered inside carefully. He was surprised to see valuable stones, gold and diamond jewels. He filled his bag with the jewels. Immediately, he came out and said, ‘close Sesame.’ The door closed and it looked just like a rock. Kasim Khan loaded the bag on the donkey and returned home.

Soon Kasim Khan reached home and showed the jewels, to his wife he brought. His wife thanked Allah seeing the heap of jewels in the bag and asked her husband how it was possible for him to find the jewels. Kasim Khan explained that the incident happened in the forest. “Let us dig the earth and burry the treasure, so that it remains safely in our custody” Kasim said. Accordingly, they counted the ornaments, put them in a jar, kept few with them for their use. Then they made hollow in the earth and kept the jar inside and then filled up with the remaining earth. They became very happy, feeling that now onwards, they would not require to work hard. They might sell the ornaments, purchase some cultivable land. To materialize the idea, Kasim Khan went to jeweler, discussed frankly about his intention. The jeweler was very shrewd. He could guess that these jewelries must be stolen from somewhere. So, he spelled out his doubt to Kasim Khan. Being very simple and honest, Kasim Khan narrated the fact of his getting gold. The Jeweler gave an idea to start business of any kind by selling his ornaments. Kasim Khan on the advice of goldsmith, started jewelry business, but he was not so expert in such a type of business and lost most of his gold stored in earth. They became very sad, and in a fix.

However, Kasim’s wife was very religious and intelligent. She gave an idea to her husband to purchase some land, sell the ornaments to the goldsmith. The idea was accepted by Kasim Khan and acted accordingly. They purchased some cultivable land, worked hard to grow a crop and this way, they maintained their livelihood and lived happily.