It was an unusually busy evening in the village. All the villagers had gathered out in the square and were watching out eagerly to see if anyone was coming along the road. It was a big event: a new magistrate was to arrive to serve in the village. And not just any new magistrate, either – he was coming from the faraway capital city! No one in the village had ever seen someone from the capital before. So when he arrived at last, everyone watched in amazement as beautiful horses galloped up, harnessed to a glittering chariot. In the chariot sat a magnificently dressed figure. He climbed down from the chariot, smoothed out his long robe with a dignified swish, and looked around him. It was a pleasant, warm evening at the end of summer. The chirping cicadas announced that the day was slowly but surely coming to an end. The sun had already set, and the village square was lit only by a few lamps and the soft glow of the stars. The new magistrate had arrived on the last day of the lunar month, so it was very dark – the moon couldn’t be seen in the sky at all.
The venerable magistrate looked up at the dark sky in amazement. Then he leaned towards the village clerk, and asked with concern: “Where has the moon gone?”
The clerk was puzzled. Was the magistrate joking? But no, the magistrate, accustomed only to life in a bright, bustling city, continued quite seriously: “Don’t you have a moon here in the village?”
The clerk understood then that the magistrate really thought the moon had disappeared from the sky. However, he had also noticed that coins were jingling in the magistrate’s sleeves. A cunning idea…
