The thief bade him good-day , saying : `` Honest man , how can you possibly see to stitch at your age ? '' `` Old as I am , '' replied the cobbler , `` I have very good eyes , and will you believe me when I tell you that I sewed a dead body together in a place where I had less light than I have now . '' The robber was overjoyed at his good fortune , and , giving him a piece of gold , desired to be shown the house where he stitched up the dead body . At first Mustapha refused , saying that he had been blindfolded ; but when the robber gave him another piece of gold he began to think he might remember the turnings if blindfolded as before . This means succeeded ; the robber partly led him , and was partly guided by him , right in front of Cassim 's house , the door of which the robber marked with a piece of chalk . Then , well pleased , he bade farewell to Baba Mustapha and returned to the forest . By and by Morgiana , going out , saw the mark the robber had made , quickly guessed that some mischief was brewing , and fetching a piece of chalk marked two or three doors on each side , without saying anything to her master or mistress . The thief , meantime , told his comrades of his discovery . The Captain thanked him , and bade him show him the house he had marked . But when they came to it they saw that five or six of the houses were chalked in the same manner . The guide was so confounded that he knew not what answer to make , and when they returned he was at once beheaded for having failed . Another robber was dispatched , and , having won over Baba Mustapha , marked the house in red chalk ; but Morgiana being again too clever for them , the second messenger was put to death also . The Captain now resolved to go himself , but , wiser than the others , he did not mark the house , but looked at it so closely that he could not fail to remember it . He returned , and ordered his men to go into the neighboring villages and buy nineteen mules , and thirty-eight leather jars , all empty except one , which was full of oil . The Captain put one of his men , fully armed , into each , rubbing the outside of the jars with oil from the full vessel . Then the nineteen mules were loaded with thirty-seven robbers in jars , and the jar of oil , and reached the town by dusk . The Captain stopped his mules in front of Ali Baba 's house , and said to Ali Baba , who was sitting outside for coolness : `` I have brought some oil from a distance to sell at to-morrow 's market , but it is now so late that I know not where to pass the night , unless you will do me the favor to take me in . '' Though Ali Baba had seen the Captain of the robbers in the forest , he did not recognize him in the disguise of an oil merchant . He bade him welcome , opened his gates for the mules to enter , and went to Morgiana to bid her prepare a bed and supper for his guest . He brought the stranger into his hall , and after they had supped went again to speak to Morgiana in the kitchen , while the Captain went into the yard under pretense of seeing after his mules , but really to tell his men what to do .
Beginning at the first jar and ending at the last , he said to each man : `` As soon as I throw some stones from the window of the chamber where I lie , cut the jars open with your knives and come out , and I will be with you XXXXX a trice . ''
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