The Witch and the Smiling Moon Moral Story
A gentle moral story about letting go and finding happiness in the present moment, perfect for kids and bedtime reading.
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The Silly Witch and the Smiling Moon
The silly witch was walking home. The sky gradually grew dark as she walked out of the valley and came to a small river. She stepped onto a little bridge.
The water under the bridge flowed gently. The night was beautiful.
As she looked into the river, she saw the reflection of the moon. The moon shimmered on the moving water, as if it were smiling at her.
The silly witch became completely absorbed in it.
In the water jar in her yard, there was also a moon. But in the still water, the moon had never smiled like this.
She liked this smiling moon very much.
“I must take it home,” she thought. “If I can smile at it and it smiles back, that would be wonderful.”
So she hurried home, took a wooden bucket, and ran back to the bridge.
But just as she lifted the moon out of the water, suddenly, splash — the bottom of the bucket fell out, and the moon dropped back into the river.
The silly witch stamped her feet in frustration and quickly ran home to get another bucket.
This time, the bottom didn’t fall out, but the entire bucket slipped and fell into the river.
It was already too late at night, so she had no choice but to go home.
Fortunately, the next night, the moon was still there, smiling in the rippling water. She managed to lift it up with one bucket.
But suddenly, a frog jumped into the bucket and stirred the water, breaking the moon into pieces.
On the third night, the sky changed. There was no moon in the sky, and no moon in the water.
On the fourth night, the sky was clear again, and the bucket was fine. But the wind was strong. The water shook constantly, and the moon no longer smiled — it looked as if it were crying.
The silly witch almost cried too.
Still, she did not give up.
On the fifth night, she finally succeeded. She scooped up a smiling moon and carried it home.
After catching her breath, she prepared to smile back at the moon.
But then she noticed that the water in the bucket had become still… and the moon had lost all expression.
The silly witch never managed to keep a smiling moon. She felt a little discouraged.
She didn’t feel like doing anything anymore. No matter how hard she tried, she could not get what she wanted.
One night, she passed the bridge again and met another witch — a calm witch — sitting quietly by the river, with a gentle smile on her face.
Seeing the silly witch, she waved and invited her to sit together.
At the moment she sat down, the silly witch saw it again — on the gently moving river surface, the moon was smiling at her.
That night, she finally got what she wanted.
She could smile together with the smiling moon.
And the calm witch had already been sitting there, smiling at the moon all along.
Later, the silly witch said to the moon in the river:
“If I hadn’t always tried to take you home, maybe I could have smiled with you much earlier.”
The moon did not answer.
It simply continued to smile.
Moral of the Story
The moral of the story is:
Some happiness cannot be taken or kept. It can only be experienced in the right moment.
Why This Matters
This is one of those gentle moral stories for kids and healing stories that teaches a quiet but powerful lesson.
It shows that:
- Chasing happiness too hard can make us lose it
- Being present brings real joy
- Sometimes, letting go is the only way to receive
As a bedtime story with meaning, it helps children understand emotions in a soft and thoughtful way.
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