The Boy Who Cried "Wolf!"

The story of the boy who cried wolf is another popular Aesop fable worldwide. It teaches an important lesson about lies and incessant pranks.

There was a Shepherd Boy who tended his master's sheep in a forest near the village. He only had his dog and the sheep for company and would easily get bored.
One day, he thought of a way to amuse himself and he decided to prank the villagers. Although he did not see anything that looked like a wolf, he started running towards the village screaming "Wolf! Wolf!". The villagers armed themselves and rushed to where the sheep were. The Shepherd Boy started laughing and then the villagers realised that they had been pranked.
This amused the boy so much that he decided to play the trick again a few days later. He ran towards the village screaming "Wolf! Wolf!" and again, the villagers rushed to his rescue only to find that they had been fooled again.
One evening, an actual wolf appeared from the dark forest and he ran towards the village in terror, crying "Wolf! Wolf!", but no one attempted to help him. The wolf devoured a good number of his sheep and went back into the forest.

This story teaches us that we should not lie or be deceitful as this will make it difficult for people to believe us when we are being sincere. What the boy thought was a harmless lie or prank turned out to cost him his sheep. This is where the proverb that says "A person who gains a reputation for being dishonest will not be believed about anything, even the truth" is gotten.