The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Told in English, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Spanish, French, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese.

Come here, my dear, and let me tell you a story about why it's always, always so important to tell the truth. A young shepherd boy spent his days watching over a flock of sheep on a quiet, peaceful hillside — and after a while, he grew rather bored. So one day, just to amuse himself, he cupped his hands and shouted at the top of his lungs, 'Wolf! Wolf!'

And do you know what happened? All the villagers came running with sticks, ready to help fight off the wolf — only to find there was no wolf at all! The boy laughed and laughed at his little trick. So, a week later, he did it again — 'Wolf! Wolf!' — and once more, the tired villagers came running, and once more, they found nothing. They shook their heads, sighed, and went back to their work, growing rather weary of his games.

Then, one ordinary afternoon, something truly frightening happened: a real wolf crept quietly out from the trees and began chasing his sheep! The boy cried out as loudly as he possibly could, 'Wolf! Wolf! Please, somebody help me!' But this time, my darling, can you guess what happened? Nobody came. Not a single person, because they no longer believed him. The wolf scattered his whole flock, and the boy learned, much too late, an important lesson: once people stop trusting you, it's very, very hard to earn that trust back. That's why honesty matters so much, especially when it counts the most.