The article examines the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, focusing on the way the bandits try to enter Ali Baba’s house hidden in the cargo carried by donkeys. To this day, two real cases are known in which a similar military stratagem was used. The first, successful case occurred during the capture of the city of Joppa (today’s Jaffa, a district of Tel Aviv, Israel) by the troops of the Egyptian commander Djehuti, who served under Pharaoh Thutmose III (1478–1424 BC). Djehuti began negotiations with the leader of the rebels in the Egyptian army’s camp and managed to neutralize him. He then sent a trusted messenger to Joppa with the news that the rebels had succeeded in subduing Djehuti. Later, Egyptians, bound as prisoners, entered the city with baskets in which Egyptian soldiers were hidden. Once inside, the soldiers emerged from the baskets, freed their companions, and took over the city. Records of this operation are preserved in the “Harris Papyrus 500,” kept in the British Museum. Researchers suggest that the baskets were carried by donkeys. Donkeys had been used as pack animals since the time of Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty (2613–2498 BC), though initially their loads were supported by men walking alongside the animals. Depictions from Egyptian tombs of the Eighteenth Dynasty (1550–1292 BC) and later, showing donkeys carrying two symmetrically placed baskets on their backs, support this hypothesis. The second, though unsuccessful attempt, described by the Byzantine chronicler John Skylitzes, took place in 1038 AD, when the Arabs tried to use a similar tactic to capture the Byzantine city of Edessa (today’s Şanlıurfa, Türkiye). Arab soldiers were hidden in chests carried by horses and camels, while the emirs told the fortress commander that they were bringing gifts for the emperor. The plan was for the chests to be taken into the city overnight, but a passerby overheard the Arabs’ conversation and alerted the city’s governor. The hidden soldiers and the Arab emirs were slain by the Byzantines. Legends of soldiers concealed as cargo in baskets carried by pack animals during the capture of fortresses in Bulgaria by the Ottoman Turks are also known from later times. One such legend exists about the capture of the Ovech Fortress, where mules were used, though the origin of this account is unclear and should be regarded as the product of modern local romantic traditions, echoing other events mainly known from preserved historical narratives.