The Moon in the Well

Folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther Type 1335A
translated and/or edited by

D. L. Ashliman
© 2008

Nasreddin Hodja Rescues the Moon (Turkey).
The Monkeys and the Moon (Tibet).

Links to longer tales containing episodes about fools trying to rescue the moon's reflection from a pond or a well:

Joel Chandler Harris, "The Moon in the Mill-Pond," Nights with Uncle Remus: Myths and Legends of the Old Plantation (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1883), no. 19, pp. 100-107.
Joseph Jacobs, "The Three Sillies," English Fairy Tales (London: David Nutt, 1890), pp. 9-14.

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Nasreddin Hodja Rescues the Moon

Turkey

One day the Hodja went to the well to draw some water. There he saw the moon's reflection. Thinking it fallen into the well, he said, "I will have to pull it out immediately." He took a rope with a hook fastened to one end and lowered it into the well.

The hook caught on a rock, and the rope broke, causing the Hodja to fall onto his back. Lying there he saw the moon in the heaven and cried out, "Praise and honor Allah! I injured myself, but at least the moon is back where it belongs."

Source: Albert Wesselski, Der Hodscha Nasreddin, vol. 1 (Weimar: Alexander Duncker Verlag, 1911), no. 124, p. 64.
Translated by D. L. Ashliman. © 2008.
For two additional formulations of this story see:
1. George Borrow, The Turkish Jester; or, The Pleasantries of Cogia Nasr Eddin Effendi (Ipswich: W. Webber, 1894), pp. 51-52.
2. W. A. Clouston, The Book of Noodles: Stories of Simpletons; or, Fools and Their Follies (London: Elliot Stock, 1888), p. 92.
Link to more stories about Nasreddin Hodja.
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The Monkeys and the Moon

Tibet

In long-past times there lived a band of monkeys in a forest. As they rambled about they saw the reflection of the moon in a well, and the leader of the band said, "O friends, the moon has fallen into the well . The world is now without a moon. Ought not we to draw it out?"

The monkeys said, "Good; we will draw it out."

So they began to hold counsel as to how they were to draw it out. Some of them said, "Do not you know? The monkeys must form a chain, and so draw the moon out."

So they formed a chain, the first monkey hanging on to the branch of a tree, and the second to the first monkey's tail, and a third one in its turn to the tail of the second one. When in this way they were all hanging on to one another, the branch began to bend a good deal. The water became troubled, the reflection of the moon disappeared, the branch broke, and all the monkeys fell into the well and were disagreeably damaged.

A deity uttered this verse, "When the foolish have a foolish leader, they all go to ruin, like the monkeys which wanted to draw the moon up from the well."

Source: F. Anton von Schiefner, Tibetan Tales Derived from Indian Sources, translated from the German by W. R. S. Ralston (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, and Company, 1906), no. 45, p. 353.
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