I can’t believe how much treasure there is in the cave! Bales of silk, stuff-brocades, all piled together, gold and silver in heaps, and loads of money in leather purses. There is more here than my ten mules can carry! I gather up as much as I can take, and then I go to leave.

I call out, “Open, Door!”

That isn’t the magic word. “Open, Barley!”

What the devil was the password? “Open, Mustard Seed!”

The door won’t budge.

I am doomed.

Ali Baba’s Trapped Brother in The Forty Thieves, Blue Fairy Book. Illustration by Maxfield Parrish.