One day, a little boy decided to make a cut-out moon with a big smiling face. He spent a lot of time preparing it, being previously quite skillful with scissors anyway and using information he obtained from friends, and finally, amidst much fanfare during a gathering of the village boys, he showed some of his friends (being careful, mind you, not to reveal his paper moon in too much detail to any who might scoff at it as a paper moon). He then stuck it on a pole by a pond for all to see and his friends sung its praises. Several were impressed by the newness of his paper moon. Some even asked him to show them how to cut out a paper moon. Others, having seen paper moons before, were not as easily impressed.
Later, the little boy gathered a gang around him who vociferously admired his paper moon and the tales he told about it. One young boy, pointing to the reflection of the paper moon in the pond, squealed look at the new moon! Isn't it wonderful!? The little boy, annoyed, said, pointing to his cut-out moon: Look! That's the moon! The moon reflected there is different! All my friends have seen it and they say it is a wonderful moon! Others, hearing of this, scoffed, saying the little boy's moon was simply a reflection and exactly like one they had seen stuck by this pond some time ago and given great fanfare by many boys all over the village.
An old monk came by amidst the scuffle and, having seen boys and their paper moons and followers many times before, he simply smiled, shook his head and, lifting his eyes looked at the full moon, in the rays of which he had sat for several decades, scudding across the evening sky - as it always had - and always will. And so, henceforth, the boy's paper moon has had its admirers, just as other paper moons have had. In time, some of the son's friends even made their own paper moons, but strangely, with each generation, the quality decreased as the paper moons changed, slightly at first, but more obviously as time passed. Also, there were those who told their friends about the boy and his paper moon and the story spread through many villages where some still admire the paper moons of little boys even to this day.