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40Aesop's Fables¹  

The Boy who cried Wolf

By Rob² John

A young boy got a job with a shep-herd. 

‘Just keep your eyes open and 

look out for wolves’ said the shep-herd. ‘Wolves always try to eat my 

sheep. If you see one, ring this bell 

and shout out ‘ Wolf..!  Wolf..!’ Then 

we’ll come running with our guns. 

Can you do that, boy?’ ‘Don’t 

you worry Mr Shepherd³,’ said the 

boy. ‘Your sheep are safe with me.’

The boy took the sheep up into the 

hills and sat down with his bell. 

‘Don’t worry sheep,’ he said. ‘I’m 

here now. I’m in charge. You’ll be 

safe with me.’ 

All morning the boy sat in the grass 

looking for wolves. ‘I expect they’re 

hiding,’ he said to the sheep. 

That night the boy took the sheep 

back to the village. The shepherd 

counted his sheep and was very 

pleased. ‘Well done,’ he said. ‘All 

safe. Same again tomorrow?’ 

‘Yes s ir !’  said the boy. 

The next day was exactly the same 

as the first day. The boy took the 

sheep to the hills and sat down 

with his bell looking for wolves. 

There weren’t any. 

The boy noticed that the day felt 

very long. There was no-one to 

talk to...except sheep...and the 

sheep never talked back...they 

just ate grass...all day...

By the fifth day the boy was very 

bored with his job. He looked up at 

the mountains. Not a wolf in sight. 

He looked down at the bell and he 

thought : ‘Maybe I could just pre-tend there’s a wolf.’

So he picked up his bell...

...and rang it, shouting ‘Wolf...wolf...

...hurry... come quickly...there’s a 

big old wolf coming!’

Soon he could hear the sound of 

men running up the hill. ‘Where is 

it?’ said the shepherd. ‘Gone, ’ said 

the boy.

‘He just ran off.’ ‘Well done boy,’ 

said the shepherd. ‘You saved my 

sheep.’ The other men all patted 

the boy on the head and said 

how brave he’d been and what a 

good job he’d done. The boy felt 

so proud and pleased with him-self that he almost forgot that he’d 

made the whole thing up. 

A few days later he was bored 

again. ‘The only good day I had 

in this job was when I pretended 

there was a wolf,’ he told the 

sheep. ‘And I rang my bell and all 

the men came and told me what a 

good job I’d done. It was brilliant.’ 

He looked at his bell. And that’s 

when he decided⁵ to do it again.

He rang, he shouted and again the 

men came running. ‘Where is it?’ 

said the shepherd. ‘Gone,’ said the 

boy. ‘Ran away.’ This time the men 

didn’t say ‘well done’ and pat⁴ him 

on the head. This time they looked 

at the boy like they didn’t believe 

him. ‘There was a wolf, honest,’ he 

said. The men just walked back to 

the village without speaking.

Now the boy felt really sorry for 

himself. ‘They know I rang my bell 

when there was no wolf.’

Then out of the corner of his eye 

he saw a movement -  a big grey 

thing was coming down the hillside 

heading⁶ straight for the sheep. 

The boy rang his bell and he shout-ed. ‘Wolf...wolf...come quickly... 

...there’s a wolf ! ’

Down in the village the men heard 

the bell ring and just carried on 

working. 

‘Little fool,’ said the Shepherd. 

‘Does he really think we’ll fall for 

that again?’

The boy kept ringing his bell. 

There were tears in his eyes as 

he watched the wolf make a meal 

of one of the shepherd’s fattest 

sheep.

‘I rang my bell but nobody came,’ 

the boy told the shepherd that 

evening. 

The shepherd nodded ‘Nobody 

believes a liar⁷ ...even when he’s 

speaking the truth.’