There once was a shepherd who while out guarding the flock grew bored and lonely; so he began to cry out: "Wolf! Wolf! There is a wolf in the flock." People came running from the village with torches and cudgels and beat the brush looking for the wolf. They came back sweaty and puzzled when they could find no wolf but the boy told of a great grey beast who had appeared suddenly with fearsome eyes and great teeth and snarled at the sheep and but then had just as suddenly leaped back into the undergrowth and disappeared. The following week later, the boy grew bored again and began to cry out: "Wolf! Wolf! There is a wolf in the flock." Again people came running with torches and cudgels, beat the brush and came back sweaty and puzzled. This time the boy told the story of how a ewe had thrown herself between her lambs and the wolf and stared the great beast down.
In the weeks and months and seasons that followed, the boy would occasionally become bored and cry wolf. People of village would come out, fail to find the wolf and then stay to hear the boy's story of wolf behavior. The stories told of amazing interventions from other animals, of battles breaking out between wolves and one of the wolves taking pity on a crippled but brave sheep defending the herd. As will happen, finally a wolf did come upon the herd and the boy was forced to shout out for help. Again the people came though by now they came more slowly and carried torches to light there way and sticks to help them walk over stony ground. When they arrived, they saw the wolf and set upon it with the sticks and torches and drove it away. The boy thanked them and said he had been afraid they might have lost faith in his cries of wolf. The village elder replied: "Oh, we didn't believe in the wolf we just came to hear what story you would tell."
In the weeks and months and seasons that followed, the boy would occasionally become bored and cry wolf. People of village would come out, fail to find the wolf and then stay to hear the boy's story of wolf behavior. The stories told of amazing interventions from other animals, of battles breaking out between wolves and one of the wolves taking pity on a crippled but brave sheep defending the herd. As will happen, finally a wolf did come upon the herd and the boy was forced to shout out for help. Again the people came though by now they came more slowly and carried torches to light there way and sticks to help them walk over stony ground. When they arrived, they saw the wolf and set upon it with the sticks and torches and drove it away. The boy thanked them and said he had been afraid they might have lost faith in his cries of wolf. The village elder replied: "Oh, we didn't believe in the wolf we just came to hear what story you would tell."