Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons

"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons" is a classic science fiction short story by American writer Cordwainer Smith, first published in Galaxy Magazine in 1961 and based partly on the folk tale Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. It was collected most recently in the book The Rediscovery of Man. The story details the methods by which the Norstrilians of Smith's fictional "Instrumentality of Mankind" universe maintain their monopoly on the valuable immortality drug stroon. The story details part of the background for the novel Norstrilia, which references the Kittons in its introduction as a method for certain death.