The Shepherd Boy

Once there was a shepherd boy. One day while watching his sheep, he saw a black smoke rising up from a house. A man came out of the house and shouted, "Fire!" Within a minute many people of neighboring houses came out. They carried buckets full of water to put off the fire. When the fire had been put out, the boy thought, "Everyone paid a lot of attention to the man whose house was on fire. How important he must have felt." Thus, he got an idea. He thought that - as a shepherd - his duty was to look out for wolves.

The next day when everybody went for rest, he started shouting, "Wolf! Wolf!" at top of his voice. In a moment all the people resting in the field ran towards him. They carried sticks and other weapons they had.

"Quick everybody!" cried the blacksmith, “There is a wolf among the sheep! Where is he, boy?"

The men cried, "Where is the wolf?"

"I, I don't see him now!" The shepherd boy admitted, "Perhaps I may be mistaken"

Then the men said, "Be alert instead of being sorry.”

They returned to their homes. The shepherd boy thought, "Well, at least they all came out of their houses when I called."

So the next day he decided that he would play the same trick again. So he started shouting again in the same way. All the people came out.

He said, "I might have seen the dog."

The men said angrily, “You should be more careful in future. You woke us from our afternoon sleep."

Now the shepherd boy decided not to play the same trick again. But one afternoon he saw a real wolf coming through the grass towards him. He was very much frightened. The animal was large and ferocious. He had never seen before such a huge wolf. He cried loudly, "Help! Help! Wolf!"

But alas! People didn't come, and instead said, "We are not going to there for nothing for the third time" So no one wanted to help the shepherd boy. The wolf killed his flock.

The shepherd boy protested to his father that night. “I cried, Wolf!, Wolf! but nobody came out.” His father said, "Twice the people went to help you, but they found nothing. How are they to know that you are not lying for the third time?"

Moral: A lie will give you no advantage.

(Once Upon A Time Vol.1, Dhingra – Delhi - India)