The Boy Who Cried Wolf

There was once a shepherd boy who watched over the village flock on a hillside above town. It was boring work. The sheep just ate grass. All day. Every day.

One afternoon, to amuse himself, the boy ran down to the village shouting, "Wolf! Wolf! A wolf is attacking the sheep!"

The villagers dropped everything and ran up the hill with pitchforks and torches. But when they got there, there was no wolf. Just the boy, laughing.

"Ha! I tricked you!" he said.

The villagers were not amused. But they went back to work.

A few days later, the boy did it again. "Wolf! Wolf!" The villagers ran up the hill. No wolf. Just the boy laughing again.

"This isn't funny," they said. And they went home angry.

Then one evening, a real wolf crept out of the forest. A big, gray, hungry wolf with yellow eyes. It started stalking the sheep.

The boy was terrified. He ran to the village screaming, "Wolf! WOLF! Please, there's really a wolf this time!"

But no one came. The villagers heard him and shook their heads. "He's lying again," they said, and went back to their dinners.

The wolf scattered the flock. The boy sat on the hillside, alone, watching the sheep run in every direction.

He learned something that night that he never forgot: nobody believes a liar, even when they're telling the truth.