There was once a shepherd boy who kept his flock at the foot of a mountain, near a dark forest, and the days were long and dull, and he was often bored with nothing but sheep for company.
One day, to amuse himself, he thought of a trick. He ran down toward the village as fast as he could, crying out, “Wolf! Wolf! A wolf is among the sheep!” The good people of the village dropped what they were doing and came running up the hill with sticks and staves to drive the wolf away. But when they got there, they found the boy laughing at them, and no wolf anywhere to be seen. “I only wanted to see you run,” he said. And the villagers grumbled and went back down the hill, out of temper.
A few days later the boy played the very same trick again. “Wolf! Wolf!” he cried. “The wolf is after the sheep!” And again the villagers came hurrying up to help him, and again there was no wolf, and again the boy laughed to see them so put out. And they went home angrier than before, and told him he was a foolish, lying boy, and that he should be ashamed.
But then, one evening, a wolf did come out of the forest in earnest. It fell upon the flock, and the sheep scattered in terror, and the boy was truly frightened now. He ran toward the village crying with all his might, “Wolf! Wolf! Please come! There is a wolf among the sheep!”
The villagers heard him. But they only shook their heads. “That is the boy who is always crying wolf,” they said. “He will not fool us a third time.” And not one of them stirred to help him.
So the wolf, undisturbed, did as it pleased among the flock, and when it had had its fill it slipped back into the forest; and many of the sheep were lost. And the boy sat down among what was left and wept, and learned, too late, the price of his own game.
A liar is not believed even when he speaks the truth; for once trust is spent, it is not easily bought back.