The Moon

Long ago, in a time when the world was quite different from what it is today, there was a land where something very strange and wonderful occurred every single night. In this particular country, the moon did not hang high in the sky as it does for us, but instead rested each evening on the topmost branches of a mighty oak tree that grew on a hill overlooking the main village.

This oak tree was truly magnificent, ancient beyond memory and so tall that its crown seemed to brush against the very heavens themselves. Its trunk was so wide that it would take twenty men holding hands to encircle it, and its roots ran so deep into the earth that the old folk said they reached all the way to the center of the world. But most remarkable of all was the fact that every night, just as the sun disappeared beyond the western horizon, the moon would descend from the sky and settle gently among the highest branches of this extraordinary tree.

The moon in that land was not the distant, cold orb that we know today, but rather a warm, glowing sphere about the size of a large pumpkin, radiating a soft, silvery light that was bright enough to illuminate the entire countryside. When it rested in the oak tree, the moon cast dancing shadows through the leaves and bathed everything in a magical, ethereal glow that made even the most ordinary things appear beautiful and mysterious.

The people of that land had grown accustomed to this nightly phenomenon over many generations. Children would gather beneath the oak tree to play games in the moon’s gentle light, lovers would meet in the silvery groves to whisper sweet words to each other, and travelers would time their journeys to take advantage of the bright illumination that made night travel safe and pleasant.

The guardianship of the moon was considered one of the most sacred responsibilities in the land. Each night, the village elders would take turns watching over the tree to ensure that no harm came to their precious celestial visitor. They would sit beneath the oak’s spreading branches, telling stories and sharing wisdom while keeping careful watch over the glowing orb that brought such light and beauty to their world.

However, one particular night, something went terribly wrong with this age-old arrangement. Four men from a neighboring country had been traveling through the land on business, and they happened to witness the nightly descent of the moon into the oak tree. These four men were not honest merchants or innocent travelers, but rather cunning thieves who had spent their lives looking for opportunities to steal valuable things from unsuspecting people.

The leader of this group was a man named Klaus, who was known throughout several kingdoms for his ability to plan elaborate heists and his complete lack of moral scruples. His three companions were equally skilled in the arts of stealth and theft: Heinrich was a master lockpick who could open any door or chest, Wolfgang was an expert climber who could scale any wall or tree, and Friedrich was a smooth-talking con artist who could convince anyone of anything.

When these four rogues saw the moon resting peacefully in the oak tree, glowing like the most precious jewel imaginable, their eyes lit up with greed and their minds immediately began calculating the potential value of such an extraordinary prize.

“Look at that,” whispered Klaus to his companions, pointing up at the radiant orb nestled among the leaves. “Have you ever seen anything so beautiful and valuable in all your lives? That moon must be worth more than all the gold and jewels in a dozen royal treasuries.”

Heinrich nodded eagerly, his fingers twitching as if he were already picking the lock on a chest filled with treasure. “Imagine what we could get for something like that! Kings and emperors would empty their coffers just for the chance to own their own personal moon.”

Wolfgang, who was already studying the trunk of the oak tree and planning his climbing route, grinned wickedly. “It would be the greatest theft in the history of the world,” he said. “Our names would be remembered forever as the men who stole the moon itself.”

Friedrich, ever the persuasive speaker, began weaving elaborate fantasies about how they could market their celestial prize. “We could travel from kingdom to kingdom, selling moonlight by the hour to wealthy nobles. Or we could ransom it back to the sky gods for an unimaginable fortune. The possibilities are endless!”

The four thieves spent the rest of that night hidden in the bushes near the oak tree, carefully observing the routines of the village guards and noting when the watch changed. They studied the tree itself, identifying the best climbing routes and planning exactly how they would carry out their audacious heist.

As dawn approached and the moon began to stir in preparation for its return to the sky, the thieves retreated to a safe distance to finalize their plans. They decided to return the following night, when they would put their scheme into action and steal the moon for themselves.

The next evening, as the sun set and the moon once again descended to its resting place in the oak tree, the four thieves crept silently through the shadows toward their target. They had timed their approach perfectly, arriving during the brief period when the guards were changing shifts and the tree was momentarily unattended.

Wolfgang, being the most skilled climber among them, was chosen to ascend the tree and actually steal the moon. He moved like a cat through the darkness, finding handholds and footholds among the massive branches with practiced ease. The oak tree was so large and its branches so thick that he was able to climb almost silently, disturbing barely a leaf as he made his way toward the glowing prize.

Meanwhile, Klaus, Heinrich, and Friedrich positioned themselves around the base of the tree, keeping watch for any approaching guards and preparing to receive the moon when Wolfgang lowered it down to them. They had brought with them a large, soft sack made of the finest silk, specially designed to contain their celestial prize without damaging its delicate radiance.

As Wolfgang climbed higher and higher, the moon’s glow grew brighter and more intense. When he finally reached the topmost branches where the moon rested, he could hardly believe his good fortune. The moon was even more beautiful up close than it had appeared from the ground, its surface smooth and warm to the touch, pulsing gently with an inner light that seemed almost alive.

Working quickly but carefully, Wolfgang managed to detach the moon from its resting place among the branches. It was surprisingly light for its size, weighing no more than a large watermelon, and it seemed to respond to his touch by dimming its light slightly, as if it understood that secrecy was now important.

With infinite care, Wolfgang lowered the moon down through the branches on a long rope, passing it from branch to branch until it reached his waiting companions below. The four thieves wrapped their prize in the silk sack, muffling its glow and making it invisible to any casual observer.

As soon as they had secured the moon, the thieves fled into the night, moving swiftly but quietly away from the village and toward the safety of the wilderness. Behind them, the land that had always been bathed in gentle moonlight was plunged into an unnatural darkness. The oak tree stood empty and forlorn, its branches bare of their celestial guest for the first time in countless generations.

When morning came and the village guards discovered that the moon was missing, there was great consternation and sorrow throughout the land. The people searched everywhere for their precious moon, but found no trace of it or the thieves who had taken it. Some suspected that it had been stolen, while others wondered if perhaps the moon had grown tired of visiting their land and had decided to find a new home elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the four thieves had traveled far from the scene of their crime, taking refuge in a hidden cave deep in the mountains where they could examine their prize without fear of discovery. When they unwrapped the moon from its silk covering, the entire cave was filled with brilliant light, and the thieves felt a mixture of triumph and awe at what they had accomplished.

“We’ve done it!” exclaimed Klaus, dancing around the glowing orb. “We’ve actually stolen the moon! We’re the greatest thieves who ever lived!”

For several weeks, the four companions reveled in their success, taking turns guarding their prize and making elaborate plans for how they would eventually profit from their theft. They dreamed of the riches that would be theirs when they found the right buyer for such an unprecedented treasure.

However, as time passed, the thieves began to have disagreements about what to do with the moon. Klaus wanted to sell it to the highest bidder immediately, arguing that keeping it hidden in a cave was a waste of its potential value. Heinrich thought they should break it up into smaller pieces and sell the fragments separately, believing they could make more money that way. Wolfgang wanted to keep it for themselves and use its light to aid them in future thefts. Friedrich proposed that they should ransom it back to the people they had stolen it from, demanding an enormous payment for its return.

These disagreements grew more heated as the weeks turned into months, and eventually the four thieves found themselves quarreling constantly about their celestial prize. The moon, which had once brought them such joy and satisfaction, became a source of bitter conflict that threatened to destroy their long partnership.

One particularly violent argument led to a physical fight between Klaus and Heinrich, during which Heinrich drew his knife and stabbed Klaus in the chest. Klaus died instantly, falling to the cave floor with a look of surprise and betrayal on his face. The remaining three thieves stared at their dead companion in shock, suddenly realizing that their greed had led them to commit murder.

But their troubles were far from over. Within a year, Wolfgang had died in a climbing accident while attempting to steal jewels from a mountain monastery. The following year, Friedrich was caught cheating at cards in a tavern and was beaten to death by angry gamblers. Finally, Heinrich met his end when he was captured by royal guards while attempting to rob a merchant’s caravan and was promptly hanged for his crimes.

And so all four thieves died, taking with them the secret of where they had hidden the stolen moon. The cave where they had kept their prize was so remote and well-concealed that no one ever found it, and the moon remained hidden there, its light slowly fading as the years passed without proper care.

But death was not the end of the story for these four unrepentant criminals. When they arrived in the afterlife, they found themselves in a place that was neither heaven nor hell, but rather a sort of waiting area where souls were judged and assigned to their eternal destinations based on their deeds in life.

The afterlife in those days was a busy place, filled with souls who had lived all manner of lives and were now awaiting their final judgment. It was governed by stern but fair judges who carefully weighed each soul’s good deeds against their bad ones, and who assigned appropriate rewards or punishments based on what they found.

When the four thieves arrived for their judgment, they were still arguing about the moon they had stolen. Even death had not cured them of their greed and their obsession with their celestial prize. They demanded to know what had become of their treasure and insisted that they should be allowed to continue possessing it even in the afterlife.

The judges of the dead were puzzled by this unusual case. They had dealt with all manner of earthly crimes and sins, but they had never before encountered souls who had stolen something as significant as the moon itself. They called for a special tribunal to decide what should be done with these four unusual criminals.

After much deliberation, the judges reached a decision that they felt was both just and appropriate. Since the four thieves had been so obsessed with the moon during their lives that they had been willing to kill for it, they would be allowed to have it with them in the afterlife. However, there would be conditions attached to this arrangement that would serve as their punishment.

The moon was retrieved from its hiding place in the mountain cave and brought to the afterlife, where it was placed in a special chamber with the four thieves. However, the judges decreed that since the thieves had never been able to agree on how to share their prize during their lives, they would spend eternity arguing about it in death.

The chamber where they were placed was designed in such a way that the moon would always be just out of reach of any single individual, but could only be grasped if all four thieves worked together cooperatively. However, their greedy and selfish natures made such cooperation impossible, so they were doomed to spend eternity lunging for the moon, fighting with each other, and never quite being able to possess the prize they had died for.

To make their punishment even more fitting, the judges arranged that whenever the four thieves became too violent in their eternal struggle, the moon would dim and grow cold, depriving them of even the sight of the treasure they so desperately desired. Only when they ceased their fighting and showed some measure of cooperation would the moon regain its warmth and brightness.

Thus, the four thieves found themselves trapped in a punishment that perfectly reflected their crimes. Their greed and selfishness, which had led them to steal something as precious and irreplaceable as the moon, now condemned them to an eternity of frustration and conflict, forever reaching for something they could never truly possess.

Meanwhile, back in the land where the moon had originally lived, the people continued to mourn the loss of their celestial visitor. The oak tree stood empty night after night, and the countryside remained dark and gloomy without the gentle glow that had once made their evenings so beautiful and magical.

The village elders prayed to the sky gods, begging them to send a new moon to replace the one that had been stolen. They made offerings and performed rituals, hoping that their devotion and repentance might convince the heavens to restore what had been lost.

Eventually, their prayers were answered, but not in the way they had expected. Rather than sending a single moon to rest in their oak tree, the sky gods decided to place the moon high in the heavens where it would be safe from thieves and could provide light to all people everywhere, not just those in one particular land.

This new arrangement meant that the moon was no longer as bright or as close as it had once been, but it also meant that its light could be shared by everyone in the world. The people of the land learned to appreciate this new moon, even though it was different from what they had known before, and they came to understand that perhaps it was better for such a precious gift to be shared rather than hoarded.

And so the story of the four thieves and the stolen moon became a cautionary tale about the dangers of greed and the importance of sharing the good things in life. Parents would tell it to their children on dark nights, reminding them that those who take what is not rightfully theirs, especially things that are meant to be shared by all, will ultimately find that their theft brings them nothing but sorrow and regret.

The moral of this tale is as clear as moonlight itself: that which is stolen may glitter like treasure in our hands, but it will never bring us true happiness or satisfaction. The greatest treasures in life are those that are shared freely with others, not those that are hoarded selfishly for ourselves alone.

And even today, when we look up at the moon shining down from its safe place in the sky, we can remember the four thieves who thought they could possess it for themselves, and we can be grateful that some things in this world are too beautiful and too important to belong to any one person.