The Jealous Sisters

Once upon a time there were three sisters, the youngest of whom was prettier than the
other two. Her name was Fatima. One day the sisters asked the sun, "Dear sun, which of
us is the prettiest?" "Fatima," the sun replied. The next day, the two sisters rubbed dirt
into Fatima's face and asked the sun again, but it repeated, "Fatima is the prettiest."

The two sisters took

counsel on what they
could do to rid
themselves of Fatima.
They decided that the
next day they would
pretend to go out for
wood. They would
leave the house before
Fatima and when she
tried to follow them,
she would not be able
to find them in the
woods. They thought
they had found the solution. The next morning they said to Fatima, "You sweep the
house and we'll go out to chop wood. You'll find us near a gourd we will hang in a tree."
The sisters departed and Fatima swept the house. When she had finished, she set off to
look for the gourd. She searched in one direction and then in the other, but could not find
her sisters anywhere because they had come home by another road. Fatima wandered
through the forest in circles, looking for a path. When it got dark, she climbed up to the
top of a high tree and saw a light in the distance. Frightened as she was, she ran towards
it and entered a cottage.

The cottage was the home of forty thieves who went out robbing at night. As was their
custom, they returned home the following day and beat with their rifles on the door,
which opened and let them in. The thieves sat down at the table, were brought some
delicious food and began to eat. At the first bite they noticed that it was not their servant
who had prepared the meal, so they asked him if there were anyone else with him in the
house. At first the servant did not want to say anything, but then he told them the truth.
The thieves thought that one of them should have Fatima for his wife, but they finally
decided to marry her to the servant instead so that there would be no fighting among
them. The forty thieves came to love Fatima as their sister and brought her many
beautiful presents.

When the sisters heard that Fatima was married, they were annoyed and resolved to kill
her. One day they sent a maidservant to the house of the forty thieves with a poisoned
golden necklace. The moment Fatima put on the necklace, she fell over dead. When the
thieves came home and knocked at the door, there was no one to open it. They entered
the cottage and found Fatima lying dead in the middle of the room. They shook her,
turned her over, and finally took off her new necklace. Then Fatima came to herself and
told the thieves how she had died. She promised the thieves not to accept any more gifts
from her sisters.

But the sisters found out that Fatima was not dead after all and sent their maidservant off
once again with some more poisoned gold. With compliments and flattery she had
learned from the sisters, the maidservant persuaded Fatima to accept the present. The
moment she put the gold in her dress, she fell dead again. The thieves and Fatima's
husband returned home the next morning and again found her dead on the floor. They
turned her over, searched everywhere and finally discovered the gold in her bosom. This
time the thieves scolded her even more severely and warned her not to accept any gifts
that her sisters might send.

The third day, the sisters sent Fatima a ring which, despite all the thieves' warnings, she
accepted. The moment she put the ring on, she fell dead a third time. When the thieves
returned home from their robberies they found her and searched her again, but none of
them thought of looking at her fingers. Finally they gave up and began to weep and
mourn the loss of Fatima. They placed her in a coffin, weighed it down with a tree trunk
and threw it into a fountain.
One day, the king's stableboy went to the fountain to water his horse. The horse saw the
silhouette of the coffin in the fountain and shied away, refusing to drink. The stableboy
returned home and told the king what had happened. The king rode out to the fountain
himself and saw the silhouette of the coffin in the water. Immediately he gave orders to
have the coffin raised and, seeing the beautiful maiden inside it, took her home with him
and locked her in a room. With time she got thinner and thinner and the ring fell off her
finger.

As soon as the ring fell off her finger, Fatima came back to life again. The king married
her and they both lived happily ever after.