Nasrudin was on one of his many teaching journeys,
traveling through a rich country, heading for the capital.
   As his donkey plodded along, he was more and more 
impressed by the orderliness and prosperity of the farms
on each side of the road.
   He reached the city on the first day of the new moon.
Here it was the custom for people to go into the streets
to see the crescent. Nasrudin knew nothing of this until
he realized that everyone was pouring into the open and
looking up at the moon.
   ‘They may have a flourishing country,’ said the Mulla
to himself, ‘but we, after all, have the moon almost all the
time, She evidently appears here only when she is invisible 
to us.’