There was once a boy whose father, one day, told him that he is old enough to look after the sheep. Every day he had to take the sheep over the grassy fields and watch them as they grazed, munching on the grass all day to become strong sheep with thick wool. The boy was unhappy though. He wanted to run and play, not watch the boring sheep. So, he decided to have some fun. He cried ‘Wolf! Wolf!’ until the entire village came running with stones to chase away the wolf before it could eat any of the sheep. Once they saw that there was no wolf, they left muttering under their breath about how the boy was wasting their time and giving them a nasty fright, too.

The next day, the boy again cried ‘Wolf! Wolf!’ and the villagers rushed to chase the wolf away again.

As the boy laughed at the fright he had caused, the villagers left, some angrier than the others. The third day, as the boy went up a small hill, he suddenly saw a wolf attacking his sheep. He cried as hard as he could, ‘Wolf! Wolf! WOLF!’, but the villagers thought he was trying to fool them again and did not come to rescue the sheep. The little boy lost three sheep that day, all because he lied, and cried wolf too many times for no good reason.

And - the moral is…

Do not make stories up for attention, for people will stop believing you, and no one will help you when you actually need it.