Wolves are coming

A long time ago there was a shepherd boy living in a beautiful mountain village in China. He owned fifteen baby sheep who were his best friends. During the daytime, he talked and played with these cute sheep and took them back home in the evening.

One day in summer a really bad idea came into the shepherd boy’ mind when he was in a grove with his sheep. He wanted to play a joke on his kind, nice, and friendly neighbors who lived with him in the same village. He shouted loudly and frightenedly, “Wolves are coming, wolves are coming to eat my sheep!" All villagers immediately ran into the grove as quickly as possible after they heard the boy crying for help. When they saw the shepherd boy they carefully asked him where the wolves were. To be infuriating the boy laughed and said, “You are so stupid!” and “I am joking on you”. With disappointment all the nice neighbors left. The shepherd boy enjoyed this joke very much and pretended to see wolves again a few days later. Kind-hearted villagers came to help again. However, this time villagers realized that this was a kid loving to lie.

  Fall had come. As usual the boy was playing with his sheep when wolves actually appeared. This poor boy shouted for help as loudly as he could. Unfortunately all the villagers thought he was playing the joke and no one cared about him. The boy and his sheep became the wolves’ delicious dinner.

This story tells us a truth that people don’t believe children who always tell lies, even when they tell the truth.  (YL, China)