The first care of the robbers after this was to examine the cave.  They found all the bags which Cassim had brought to the door, to be ready to load his mules, and carried them again to their places, without missing what Ali Baba had taken away before.  Then holding a council, and deliberating upon this occurrence, they guessed that Cassim, when he was in, could not get out again; but could not imagine how he had entered.  It came into their heads that he might have got down by the top of the cave; but the aperture by which it received light was so high, and the rock so inaccessible without, besides that nothing shewed that he had done so, that they gave up this conjecture.  That he came in at the door they could not believe however, unless he had the secret of making it open.  In short, none of them could imagine which way he had entered; for they were all persuaded nobody knew their secret, little imagining that Ali Baba had watched them.  It was a matter of the greatest importance to them to secure their riches.  They agreed therefore to cut Cassim’s body into four quarters, to hang two on one side and two on the other, within the door of the cave, to terrify any person who should attempt the same thing, determining not to return to the cave till the stench of the body was completely exhaled.  They had no sooner taken this resolution than they put it in execution, and when they had nothing more to detain them, left the place of their hoards well closed.  They mounted their horses, went to beat the roads again, and to attack the caravans they might meet.

In the mean time, Cassim’s wife was very uneasy when night came, and her husband was not returned.  She ran to Ali Baba in alarm, and said, “I believe, brother-in-law, that you know Cassim, your brother, is gone to the forest, and upon what account; it is now night, and he is not returned; I am afraid some misfortune has happened to him.”  Ali Baba, who had expected that his brother, after what he had said, would go to the forest, had declined going himself that day, for fear of giving him any umbrage; therefore told her, without any reflection upon her husband’s unhandsome behaviour, that she need not frighten herself, for that certainly Cassim would not think it proper to come into the town till the night should be pretty far advanced.

Cassim’s wife, considering how much it concerned her husband to keep the business secret, was the more easily persuaded to believe her brother-in-law.  She went home again, and waited patiently till midnight.  Then her fear redoubled, and her grief was the more sensible because she was forced to keep it to herself.  She repented of her foolish curiosity, and cursed her desire of penetrating into the affairs of her brother and sister-in-law.  She spent all the night in weeping; and as soon as it was day, went to them, telling them, by her tears, the cause of her coming.