The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Once upon a time, in a village far away, there lived a boy whose job it was to look after sheep. His father had a flock and it was the boy’s work to take them to the mountain and feed them grass and bring them home to the pen in the evening.

Every morning he took the sheep to the grass in the mountain. It was very beautiful there. The wind was cool, the grass was green. The sheep always munched their grass peacefully.

He wanted to sleep. But he couldn’t do that, for his father had said, “There is a wolf about. Be very watchful. I don’t want the wolf to take any of my sheep away.”

One day the boy was feeling very bored. It was too quiet and calm for him. He wanted some excitement. So he got up and shouted down the mountain, “Wolf, wolf, woolf!”

Everyone in the village who heard him came running up the mountain. They carried poles and stones and clubs. They panted up and asked the boy, “Where is the wolf?”

The boy laughed. “Hahaha there is no wolf. You all got fooled.”

The people were very angry. They scolded the boy and went back to work.

After some time passed, the boy was bored again. This time he practiced screaming.

“Wolf, wolf, woooolf!”

The villagers could not ignore such screaming. They they ran up the mountain again, carrying sticks and stones and long poles.

And again the boy laughed and laughed. He rolled on the grass laughing.

“Fooled you again, fooled you again!” he shouted.

The villagers were very angry. They said nothing. They simply went back to their work.

“You must learn to take a joke,” he shouted after them. But they did not answer him.

The boy laughed for a whole week about what had happened.

On a day after that, as he was lying on the grass thinking of what to do next, he heard all the sheep bleating excitedly.

“Baa! Baa!”

He sat up and looked around. The sheep were moving about looking very scared. There was a large, dark shadow there. The boy stared at it. It was a wolf, crouching down, ready to pounce.

The boy screamed. He was really scared. The wolf was very large. He was getting ready to jump.

The boy went shouting down the mountain. “Wolf, wolf, wooolf!” he screamed.

But no one looked up. The villagers just went on working.

“Help, help, help, help!” the boy yelled. “The wolf is here!”

No one even glanced at him

“The wolf is going the eat my sheep!” the boy yelled.

But no one came.

The wolf pounced upon the sheep. He killed many of them. The boy shouted and asked for help but no one believed him, so no one came. No one believes liars.