The Boy Who Cried Wolf

The classic cautionary tale about the importance of trust.

There was once a shepherd-boy who kept his flock at a little distance from the village. Once he thought he would play a trick on the villagers and have some fun at their expense. So he ran toward the village crying out, with all his might,— 

"Wolf! Wolf! Come and help! The wolves are at my lambs!" 

The kind villagers left their work and ran to the field to help him. But when they got there the boy laughed at them for their pains; there was no wolf there. 

Still another day the boy tried the same trick, and the villagers came running to help and got laughed at again. 

Then one day a wolf did break into the fold and began killing the lambs. In great fright, the boy ran for help. "Wolf! Wolf!" he screamed. "There is a wolf in the flock! Help!" 

The villagers heard him, but they thought it was another mean trick; no one paid the least attention, or went near him. And the shepherd-boy lost all his sheep. 

That is the kind of thing that happens to people who lie: even when they tell the truth no one believes them.

'The Boy Who Cried Wolf' is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 210 in the Perry Index.

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