This is a disclaimer. This episode is slightly more violently unusual.

Check out the discussion post at mythpodcast.com for more information.

This week, on the Mythos and Legends podcast, it's the story of Alibaba.

You'll see you probably should have read the fine print when your promotion at work

takes you from hospitality to helping your boss bury dead bodies in the desert.

Then, on the creature of the week, you'll see why it's a great idea to shriek at strangers in the grocery store.

This is the Mythos and Legends podcast, episode 33, inheritance.

This is a podcast where I tell stories from folklore. Some are incredibly popular stories you think you know,

but with surprising origins, others' stories you might not have heard, but really should.

This week, it's a story you might have heard. It's known worldwide.

I heard a few variations of the Alibaba story growing up. My favorite being, of course, the wishbone one.

But those were almost nothing like the original. The original is, unsurprisingly, much more violent,

but it has some really good characterizations. It was part of that famous

compendium of Middle Eastern and South Asian folk tales, called 1,001 Knights.

The original Aladdin tale came from that one as well. Both the Alibaba and Aladdin stories

were added by the same French translator in the early 1700s, but the story is set in medieval

Persia and in Islamic society, somewhere between the 8th and 13th century.

Alibaba's arms burned as he hung from a tree. From here, he could clearly see the men riding,

kicking up the desk cloud in the distance. It was as he thought. They were thieves.

He would miss the little donkey he had left in the middle of the road, laden with the wood he had

cut that day. When he saw the cloud approaching, Alibaba knew he needed to get off the road.

So he clamored up the cliff face to a tree that was growing out of the cliff. He strained and pulled

...