The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Q: What is the moral of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf"?

The moral is "Liars are not believed even when they speak the truth." The boy’s repeated false alarms destroyed the villagers’ trust, so when real danger arrived, no one came to help. The fable teaches that honesty is not just a virtue — it is a practical necessity. Once trust is broken through repeated lying, it is extremely difficult to restore, even when telling the truth becomes a matter of life and death.

Q: What does "cry wolf" mean?

The English idiom "to cry wolf" means to raise a false alarm — to ask for help or warn of danger when none exists. It comes directly from this Aesop fable (Perry Index 210). When someone "cries wolf," they undermine trust so that when real danger arrives, people ignore their warnings. The phrase is widely used in modern contexts, from media credibility to alert fatigue in technology systems.

Q: Would you like to read more of Aesop’s Fables?

Here are some of our favorite Aesop fables to read next:The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf — A longer, more detailed version of this same story from a different Aesop translation.The Tortoise and the Hare — The most famous fable of all: slow and steady wins the race.The Fox and the Grapes — The origin of the phrase "sour grapes" — a fox decides the grapes he can’t reach must be sour.The Ant and the Grasshopper — A tale of hard work versus laziness, and what happens when winter comes.Browse all of Aesop’s Fables in our collection.

by Aesop

This fable is also known as "The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf" (Aesop’s original title). It is Perry Index 210 and the origin of the English idiom "to cry wolf." We also have a longer telling of this story in our collection.

Flashcards

A shepherd boy watched his master’s sheep near a village. To amuse himself, he took a deep breath and cried out:

“Wolf! Wolf! The wolf is chasing the sheep!”

The villagers came running to help him, but when they arrived they saw no wolf. The boy laughed at the sight of their angry faces.

A few days later, he played the same trick again.

“Wolf! Wolf!” he shouted.

Once more the villagers rushed up the hill to help him, only to be fooled again. The boy laughed and laughed.

Then one evening, a real wolf came out of the forest and began to attack the sheep. The boy ran toward the village shouting:

“Wolf! Wolf! Please help! The wolf is really here this time!”

But the villagers thought he was trying to trick them again, and no one came to help. The wolf attacked the flock, and the boy was left alone and frightened.

Moral: Liars are not believed even when they speak the truth.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the moral of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf"?

The moral is "Liars are not believed even when they speak the truth." The boy’s repeated false alarms destroyed the villagers’ trust, so when real danger arrived, no one came to help. The fable teaches that honesty is not just a virtue — it is a practical necessity. Once trust is broken through repeated lying, it is extremely difficult to restore, even when telling the truth becomes a matter of life and death.

What does "cry wolf" mean?

The English idiom "to cry wolf" means to raise a false alarm — to ask for help or warn of danger when none exists. It comes directly from this Aesop fable (Perry Index 210). When someone "cries wolf," they undermine trust so that when real danger arrives, people ignore their warnings. The phrase is widely used in modern contexts, from media credibility to alert fatigue in technology systems.

What is "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" about?

A shepherd boy watches his master’s sheep near a village. Bored and looking for excitement, he shouts "Wolf! Wolf!" to trick the villagers into running to help him. They come running but find no wolf, and the boy laughs at their anger. He plays the same trick again. Then one evening, a real wolf attacks the sheep. The boy cries for help, but the villagers — having been fooled twice — ignore him. The wolf attacks the flock and the boy is left alone, having learned that no one believes a liar even when he tells the truth.

Would you like to read more of Aesop’s Fables?

Here are some of our favorite Aesop fables to read next:

The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf — A longer, more detailed version of this same story from a different Aesop translation.
The Tortoise and the Hare — The most famous fable of all: slow and steady wins the race.
The Fox and the Grapes — The origin of the phrase "sour grapes" — a fox decides the grapes he can’t reach must be sour.
The Ant and the Grasshopper — A tale of hard work versus laziness, and what happens when winter comes.

Browse all of Aesop’s Fables in our collection.

The Real Moral

"Liars are not believed even when they speak the truth" is one of the most practical morals in all of Aesop’s fables. Unlike many fables that deal in abstract virtues, …

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Understanding The Boy Who Cried Wolf

A short summary of the story

The Real Moral

"Liars are not believed even when they speak the truth" is one of the most practical morals in all of Aesop’s fables. Unlike many fables that deal in abstract virtues, this one shows a concrete mechanism: the boy’s lies don’t just offend the villagers’ sense of morality — they reprogram the villagers’ behavior. After being tricked twice, the villagers make a perfectly rational decision not to respond a third time.

The tragedy is that the boy’s punishment doesn’t come from the villagers wanting to teach him a lesson. They simply no longer believe him. Trust, once broken, changes how people process information, and no amount of sincerity can undo that change in the critical moment.

What This Fable Teaches

This fable resonates across centuries because the pattern it describes shows up everywhere in modern life:

Alert fatigue. When systems generate too many false alarms — car alarms, email spam filters, software notifications — people learn to ignore all of them, including the real ones.
Media credibility. News sources that sensationalize or exaggerate lose their audience’s trust, making it harder to communicate genuinely important stories.
Personal relationships. The person who constantly claims emergencies or exaggerates problems finds that friends and family stop responding with urgency.

The fable’s lesson is not simply "don’t lie." It is that credibility is a finite resource. Each false alarm spends a portion of it, and when it runs out, there is no way to borrow more.

Historical Context

"The Boy Who Cried Wolf" is Perry Index 210 and one of the most widely known fables in the Western world. It is attributed to Aesop, the ancient Greek storyteller who lived around 620–564 BCE, though the first written versions come from later Greek collections.

The fable appears in virtually every major Aesop collection, including those by Roger L’Estrange (1692), Samuel Croxall (1722), and Joseph Jacobs (1894). In earlier versions, the boy is always a shepherd, and the title is often given as "The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf." The ending varies across retellings — in some, only the sheep are killed; in others, the wolf kills the boy as well.

The idiom "to cry wolf" entered the English language directly from this fable and remains in common use today, a testament to the story’s enduring power as a cultural reference point.

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The Boy Who Cried Wolf

by Aesop

Frequently Asked Questions

The Real Moral

The Real Moral

What This Fable Teaches

Historical Context

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