The Cave of Blunders

We open near an unremarkable hillside in a windswept canyon in the dead of night as 40 thieves descend upon it after an evening of looting. Al'ahmaq, the head thief, pulls up to a rock lying against the hill and carefully announces "Capital Q, lowercase y, 3, dollar sign, equal sign, 4, 7, plus!"

What follows is silence as all of the thieves wait on horseback. Crickets are heard off in the distance. Al'ahmaq stares blankly at the rock which sits there unperturbed. Confused, he reaches into his robe to pull out a small sheet of paper which he reads by moonlight.

"Oh right", he slaps his head. "Capital Y, lowercase q, 3, dollar sign, equal sign, 4, 7, plus". Slowly the rock rolls aside to reveal a vast cave of treasures. The other thieves follow him into the cave to deposit their stolen riches of the evening.

As the thieves are unloading their bounties, Al'ahmaq's security expert, Ali, comes up to him, "Sire, it's been a fortnight, it's time to reset your password for the rock."

Al'ahmaq barks back at him, "I'm so sick of this, Ali. These rules are stupid! I can never remember any of these passwords! Capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers, symbols! And what's worse, I can't reuse any of them. You come by constantly asking me to make new ones! I have to write them down, it's absurd!"

"You really shouldn't do that!" the security thief calmly responds as he collects his thoughts. He tries to explain, "Sire, look upon the treasures in the cave. Surely the policy has worked! We have amassed great fortunes over many years and not a single person has entered our hiding place. These policies are done in your interest!"

Al'ahmaq broods for a moment and looks around admiring the priceless treasures. "Alright" he sighs, "What about underscore, semicolon, capital J ... No, you know what, I don't care!"

"But sire..." The security expert starts, "You must change your password now!"

Al'ahmaq thinks for a moment, "Alright, let's make it Password1".

"You must be joking", Ali responds.

"What do you mean?! I think it's quite clever!" Al'ahmaq strokes his chin in pride.

"That is the most common password! Everyone thinks of that and everyone thinks it's clever. The city of Gold, El Dorado used that password for its gates and it was so ransacked that it is just ruins now, overrun by jungle." The security expert responds frustratedly.

"Is that right?" Al'ahmaq ponders naively. "Alright fine, what about 1 2 3 4 5 6?" he excitedly broods, proud of his creativity.

"And that was the code for the garden in Florida with the Fountain of Youth which was guessed by invaders and is now just a swamp with crocodiles" the expert replies, "don't you read the news scrolls?!"

Al'ahmaq responds in frustration, "Alright fine. Let me think. My next suggestion will be final, lest you want me to have merely 39 thieves!" Al'ahmaq stares at the great emerald of Ozymandias, "We shall change the password to something easy to remember and easy to say. I shall name it after my dog, Sesame. Change the password to 'Open Sesame.'"

Ali protests, "Your dog?! Give me a break! Sire, that has the same problem as the others! It is easily guessable and surely someone could overhear it and come in without your knowledge and steal things!"

“My decision is final!" scoffs Al'ahmaq. "Either change it to 'open sesame' or you shall go to the gallows by morning!"

"Very well, fine. But don't come blaming me if some poor woodcutter overhears you and breaks in" the security expert responds in defeat.

"Ali! Blah blah, you worry too much!" Al'ahmaq laughs, "Remember, we are also murderers."

"As were the Knights of Camelot but then that boy became a king." Ali sighs as Al'ahmaq walks away.

And the rest is history.