Visualizing this problem, as unique ways to hand out ninja stars to ninjas. This also shows how each larger solution is made up of its neighboring, more simple solutions.

(Sorry image is linked below, I am new and can't post pictures inline)

Here is how to implement it in php: (might help you understand it too)

function multichoose($k,$n)
{
 if ($k < 0 || $n < 0) return false;
 if ($k==0) return array(array_fill(0,$n,0));
 if ($n==0) return array();
 if ($n==1) return array(array($k));
 foreach(multichoose($k,$n-1) as $in){ //Gets from a smaller solution -above as (blue)
  array_unshift($in,0);  //This prepends the array with a 0 -above as (grey)
  $out[]=$in;
 }
 foreach(multichoose($k-1,$n) as $in){ //Gets the next part from a smaller solution too. -above as (red and orange)
  $in[0]++; //Increments the first row by one -above as (orange)
  $out[]=$in;
 }
 return $out;
}

print_r(multichoose(3,4)); //How many ways to give three ninja stars to four ninjas?

Not optimal code: Its more understandable that way.

Our output:

(0,0,0,3)
(0,0,1,2)
(0,0,2,1)
(0,0,3,0)
(0,1,0,2)
(0,1,1,1)
(0,1,2,0)
(0,2,0,1)
(0,2,1,0)
(0,3,0,0)
(1,0,0,2)
(1,0,1,1)
(1,0,2,0)
(1,1,0,1)
(1,1,1,0)
(1,2,0,0)
(2,0,0,1)
(2,0,1,0)
(2,1,0,0)
(3,0,0,0)

Fun use to note: Upc relies upon this exact problem in barcodes. The sum of the whitespace and blackspace for each number is always 7, but is distributed in different ways.

//Digit   L Pattern  R Pattern  L\R Pattern (Number of times a bit is repeated)
    0   0001101    1110010    2100
    1   0011001    1100110    1110
    2   0010011    1101100    1011
    3   0111101    1000010    0300
    4   0100011    1011100    0021
    5   0110001    1001110    0120
    6   0101111    1010000    0003
    7   0111011    1000100    0201
    8   0110111    1001000    0102
    9   0001011    1110100    2001

Note only 10 of the 20 combinations are used, which means the code can be read upside-down just fine. All 20 can be used however, and are in EAN13, with a bit more complexity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EAN-13

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Product_Code

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/58531735d3.png