ter-in-law did so, but as she knew Ali Baba's poverty, she was
curious to know what sort of grain his wife wanted to measure, and
artfully putting some suet at the bottom of the measure, brought it to
her, with an excuse that she was sorry that she had made her stay so
long, but that she could not find it sooner.

Ali Baba's wife went home, set the measure upon the heap of gold, filled
it, and emptied it often upon the sofa, till she had done, when she was
very well satisfied to find the number of measures amounted to so many
as they did, and went to tell her husband, who had almost finished
digging the hole. While Ali Baba was burying the gold, his wife, to show
her exactness and diligence to her sister-in-law, carried the measure
back again, but without taking notice that a piece of gold had stuck to
the bottom. "Sister," said she, giving it to her again, "you see that I
have not kept your measure long. I am obliged to you for it, and return
it with thanks."

As soon as Ali Baba's wife was gone, Cassim's looked at the bottom of
the measure, and was in inexpressible surprise to find a piece of gold
sticking to it. Envy immediately possessed her breast. "What!" said she,
"has Ali Baba gold so plentiful as to measure it? Whence has he all this
wealth?"

Cassim, her husband, was at his counting-house. When he came home, his
wife said to him, "Cassim, I know you think yourself rich, but Ali Baba
is infinitely richer than you. He does not count his money, but measures
it." Cassim desired her to explain the riddle, which she did, by telling
him the stratagem she had used to make the discovery, and showed him the
piece of money, which was so old that they could not tell in what
prince's reign it was coined.

Cassim, after he had married the rich widow, had never treated Ali Baba
as a brother, but neglected him; and now, instead of being pleased, he
conceived a base envy at his brother's prosperity. He could not sleep
all that night, and went to him in the morning before sunrise. "Ali
Baba," said he, "I am surprised at you; you pretend to be miserably
poor, and yet you measure gold. My wife found this at the bottom of the
measure you borrowed yesterday."

By this discourse, Ali Baba perceived that Cassim and his wife, through
his own wife's folly, knew what they had so much reason to conceal; but
what was done, could not be undone. Therefore, without showing the least
surprise or trouble, he confessed all, and offered his