Morgiana told nobody what she had seen. She served supper while Cogia Houssain avoided the salt and smiled at Ali Baba.
After the dishes were cleared, Morgiana dressed as a dancer. A tambourine jingled in her hand; a silver dagger hung at her belt. Another servant played a pipe while she spun between the lamps.
The false merchant watched closely. Ali Baba clapped with delight.
At the end of the dance, Morgiana drew the dagger. She pointed it playfully toward herself, Ali Baba, and his son. Then she whirled before the guest.
Cogia Houssain reached beneath his robe.
Morgiana moved first. She knocked his hidden blade across the room and held her own dagger at his chest. The servants seized him.
“What are you doing?” cried Ali Baba.
Morgiana pulled away the false beard.
“This is the oil merchant whose jars held thirty-seven thieves. He is their captain.”
Under guard, the man confessed. With his capture, not one of the forty remained to threaten the house.
Ali Baba looked from the captain to Morgiana. She had noticed the chalk marks, discovered the jars, and recognised the disguise while everyone else saw only ordinary things.
“You have saved us three times,” he said. “Today you are free, and this home will always be yours.”
Later Morgiana married Ali Baba’s son, who considered it wise to have a wife capable of recognising danger before it removed its coat.
For many months Ali Baba stayed away from the cave. At last he rode there alone and watched from the trees. No hoofbeats came. Grass had grown across the path.
“Open, Sesame!”
The treasure remained inside. Ali Baba took only what his family needed. He gave generously in the town, supported merchants honestly, and never revealed the cave except to his son.
Years afterward, Morgiana kept one of the empty oil jars in the courtyard. She planted a lemon tree inside it. The branches grew over the rim, bright with fruit.
Visitors often admired the unusual pot. They never guessed that once, on a moonless night, a whisper from inside such a jar had asked one quiet question:
“Is it time?”