Week 5 Story: Aladdin and the (not so) Wonderful Lamp

Image Source. Aladdin
and the Genie

Aladdin found himself alone in that dark cave for days, with nothing to eat and no way of getting out. That was, until he gripped the lamp tightly, curious as to why the evil magician had sent him into the cave to retrieve the lamp in the first place. A thick cloud of smoke and dust came pouring out of the lamp and in the air formed a genie, who spoke with a deep and powerful voice: "Oh great holder of the lamp, I will grant you three wishes. Name anything you desire." The young boy was frightened and confused, but he was so fixated on getting out of the cave, upon hearing the genie he did not hesitate to scream "Help me escape from this cave!" And just like that, Aladdin's surroundings immediately changed. He was finally outside, free to go home.

Amazed by the new and powerful object he was now in possession of, Aladdin began thinking about how to spend his next two wishes on his walk home. "It seems obvious," he thinks to himself, "I should simply ask for all of the wealth and riches that exist in the world. What more will I need after that? I won't even need a third wish!" Growing up the son of a poor tailor, this was all he wanted or could think to ask for. Naively, Aladdin rubbed the lamp once again and the genie appeared: "Oh great holder of the lamp, you have two wishes remaining. How may I serve you?" Aladdin replied, "I wish for all of the gold, jewels, fine fabrics - everything of great value in the world - I want it all to be mine this instant, and I want it on a private island."

With the snap of a finger, Aladdin had everything he asked for. Countless mansions, a field of crops and livestock as far as the eye could see, a mountain of precious metals - he was surrounded by it all on his own private island. "Amazing!" Aladdin shouted with a huge grin on his face, "How can this be, wonderful genie? Where did all of this amazing wealth come from?" The genie replied: "Well, you asked for everything of great value in the world, so I have given you exactly that. But..."

Image Source. Aladdin broke the genie lamp.

As the genie began to give his warning, Aladdin threw his arms up in the air out of excitement. The lamp slipped out of his hands and hit the ground hard, smashing into many pieces. The genie let out a shriek as his cloudy figure quickly disappeared along with the object that gave him life. Aladdin looked very worried, but that feeling only lasted a brief moment as he could not wait to enjoy his new luxurious life. He remembered thinking earlier that he wouldn't need a third wish after becoming so rich, and so Aladdin did not worry. "Let me head to the mountain of jewels first and pick some beautiful gems to wear" he thought.

So Aladdin began looking through the enormous pile of beautiful and expensive jewelry, when he came across something that looked very familiar. Aladdin thought to himself, "How odd, this gold necklace looks exactly like an old friend's. She was poor, and this was one of the only nice things she owned..." Not thinking much of it, Aladdin finished decorating himself before next heading over to the livestock. He saw one cow that made him say "Hm, this cow looks very much like Tina, the cow that has been providing my mother and I with milk for years..."

And then, Aladdin was suddenly hit with a realization. He realized what the genie must have been saying before the lamp was shattered. Aladdin requested the genie make everything valuable his, and the genie did exactly that by taking from everybody else in the world and giving it all to him. Aladdin had accidentally robbed his mother of what little she had, and he had robbed his friends of everything they had as well.

Stuck alone on an island with no genie, no knowledge of how to get home, and more money and resources than he could ever use on his own, Aladdin's foolish mistake caused the rest of the world to suffer in extreme poverty without food or resources, soon leading to the extinction of mankind.

Image Source. Aladdin's greedy wish caused global famine

Author's notes: Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp tells the story of Aladdin coming from a poor family to marrying the Sultan's daughter. In the beginning of the story, Aladdin is tricked into retrieving the lamp by an evil magician who claims to be his long lost uncle. Rather than immediately handing the lamp over, Aladdin holds onto it and eventually is trapped by the magician in a dark cave. After being stuck in the cave for days, Aladdin puts his hands together in prayer and in doing so rubs the ring on his finger (given to him by the magician) causing the genie of the ring to come out. This is where my version of the story begins. In the original, Aladdin then uses what seems like an unlimited number of wishes granted by the genie of the lamp to marry the princess, defeat both the evil magician brothers, and live happily (and richly) ever after. I was shocked to find out that Aladdin got way more than three wishes, and I thought he had it way too easy. So, I've restricted his number of wishes back to three (just like Disney did), I've combined the two genies into one (so that one of his three wishes is spent getting out of the cave - also like Disney did), and lastly I've altered the ending from a happy ending to a very grim one...