Ganesha, the pot-belied elephant god, loved food and could spend an entire day, eating. Once, on a moonlit night after stuffing himself with his favourite sweet, the ladoo, he went for a ride on his vahana a tiny ra. The rat could not bear his weight and tripped. Ganesha fell on the ground with a thud  and broke a tusk. The moon laughed, seeing this funny sight.

Seeing the moon mocking him, Ganesha got angry. He cursed the moon saying that any man who looked at the moon on Ganesha Chaturthi, the birthday of Ganesha, would be wrongly balanced.

The moon, realised its mistake, and begged Ganesha to remove the curse. But Ganesha was adamant. Finally, after a long time, Ganesha gave in and reduced the punishment. He could not take back his curse but said that the falsely accused man would have to look at the moon on the second day of the fortnight to win back his good name.