Sindbad, the sailor inherited the wealth and spent it lavishly. Later on, Sindbad realises his mistakes, and he faces various struggles to regain his wealth. The main themes of the story are adventures, hardships, generosity, luck, and good fortunes.
Sindbad, the Sailor Summary
Sindbad was sailing along with many other merchants on a ship with his stock of goods to trade. Soon they reached an island. All his friends went to gather fruits and flowers there. But Sindbad went to a shady place and there he had his meal. Later he slept under the trees. When he woke up, he found that the ship had gone and he was alone there. Then he went to something which appeared like a huge white ball. It was so high and so smooth that he could not climb to the top of it. Later he saw a great, huge and wonderful bird called ‘roc’ coming towards the ball- like object. Then he realized that it was the egg of the ‘roc’ and the bird was coming for it. When the bird came there, he quickly tied himself with his turban to one of the legs of the huge bird. Then the bird flew away, carrying Sindbad. It landed on the ground among huge and great mountains. At once Sindbad untied the turban. The bird caught up a snake and flew away.
Sindbad could not know what to do. The sides of the valley looked so steep that there was no possibility of climbing them. Sindbad looked around the valley. He found large diamonds lying on the ground. All around the valley, there were huge snakes which could eat even an elephant. At nightfall, they came out of their holes. During the day, the snakes hid themselves from the huge mighty birds, the rocks.
Sindbad found a small cave and decided to spend the night in it. He put a large stone at the entrance of the cave so as to prevent the snakes from entering it. But he could not sleep well because of the hissing sound outside the cave. As day light came on, all the snakes went into their holes. Sindbad came out of the cave. He walked upon the diamonds. He ate food and slept for a while. Suddenly Sindbad woke up as a huge piece of meat had fallen near him. Some more pieces of meat fell down. He remembered how the local merchants would use huge eagles (rocs) to carry up the diamonds for them, and how they would throw huge pieces of meat into the valley as food for them, etc.
At once, Sindbad collected a large number of diamonds. He put them in his wallet and tied it to his waist. Next he tied one large piece of meat to the middle of his back with his turban. He lay down with his face to the ground. Then a huge roc flew down and picked up the piece of meat along with Sindbad and flew away to the top of the rocky walls of the valley. He was dropped into a nest. There were already some local merchants in that nest. They heard the story of Sindbad. So they helped him to find a ship to go home. Thus Sindbad got back to Baghdad. He became very rich. He gave money to the poor and lived peacefully in his home.
Conclusion:
The sailor’s will power and the people he met on each journey gave him a good lesson and a good way of living. At the end of each voyage, the sailor yearned to return to his city, “Baghdad”.