The moon and the rabbit

During my short flight last night I could see the full moon clearly from my window seat. Well, not always. Sometimes it disappeared while the plane was maneuvering, only to appear again sometimes later.  I couldn't help not to smile each time it popped up, especially when I saw "the rabbit inn the moon". Exactly a month ago me and my roommates had this conversation about the myths surrounding the rabbit in the moon. We told each other the version we knew and it turned out there are many of them! Here are the links to some of them:

1. The rabbit in the moon, Japanese version
2. Rabbit and the moon man, American folklore
3. Rabbit in the moon, Aztec myth

The version I told my roommates was this one:
On one of its mission, a NASA spaceship brought with it some experimental rabbits. One of the rabbit was so naughty and tried to escape. When the spaceship landed on the moon, by chance the rabbit was able to run away from its cage and spaceship. One NASA astronaut tried to catch the rabbit and bring it back to the spaceship. But the rabbit was too agile that it had never been caught up and left behind when the spaceship returned back to the earth. And so there the rabbit in the moon, keep jumping and playing cheerfully until today.

I laughed to see my roommates' expression when I finished telling the story. They were startled because it was too unexpected. They demanded me to reveal the source of the story to prove its validity. But well, I'd rather keep the source secret ;)

Happy full moon day, people!