THE BOY WHO CRIED “WOLF” What Really Happened

A large herd of sheep grazed on the hill above the small village. Timmy, who had the biggest, loudest voice in the whole village, was their shepherd. All day long, he would search the hillside for any sign of a wolf. If he saw one, he was to yell loudly, “WOLF!  WOLF!!” and the villagers would rush up the hill to help. 

Sometimes, Timmy would look with his binoculars into the village to see what people were doing.

One day, he was looking into his own backyard. There were his mother and father, staring at each other and shaking their fingers at each other. They were obviously arguing, angrily. It frightened Timmy to see his parents fight like that. He needed them to love each other so they could take care of him, and love him, and help him grow up. He wished he could do something to make them stop. But what???  He was way up on the hillside.

Suddenly, he thought of the wolf!

Cupping his hands around his mouth, he shouted out in his big loud voice, “WOLF! WOLF!”

Soon everyone in the whole village was there. Mother and Daddy hugged him and asked if he was all right. But one of the older men grumbled.  “I don’t see any wolf, are you sure it was a wolf?”

“There really was one,” Timmy said.  “He was right over there, and he was really big. He scared me.”

 Pretty soon, the villagers realized that if there had been a wolf, it was gone now, so they started walking back down the hill. Timmy noticed that his mother and father were holding hands.

Several days later, Timmy noticed one of the women of the village sitting by the creek, crying. Her husband had died a few days earlier, and she was obviously very sad. He wished he could help her. But how??? Then he thought of the wolf. If he called out again, maybe that would get her mind off her sadness, and help her to feel better.

Then Timmy thought some more. “I can’t keep on doing this kind of thing forever.

People will soon realize that there isn’t really a wolf up here, and will just stop paying me any kind of attention at all.  

The people who are troubled are just going to have to figure out how to handle things themselves – even Mother and Daddy.”

So Timmy didn’t call out, even though he felt a little guilty for not helping the poor woman who was so sad. 

On his way home that evening, Timmy passed the bereaved woman’s house. She was sitting on the front porch talking with a friend. Timmy was glad he had not cried out.

A few weeks later, Timmy saw a real wolf on the hillside. Immediately he yelled. “WOLF!  WOLF!” The people from the village quickly scared the wolf away, and told Timmy how proud they were of him for doing such a good job. What they didn’t know was how much Timmy had learned in the process.

And that is the true story of the boy who cried wolf.