There once was an annoying little boy who looked after sheep. Every now and then, just for poops and giggles, he would yell “WOLF!” and frighten the locals into thinking that a wolf was snacking on the helpless sheep. The boy got off on the attention because he was horrible that way. He did this several times and the locals went “Oi, you, stop raising false alarms!” In a cruel twist of fate, a hungry wolf did indeed turn up and when the little boy started screaming for help, nobody came, resulting in the loss of all the sheep. And possibly the boy too in some really gnarly versions.

And that’s the tale of The Boy Who Cried Wolf from Aesop’s Fables. Dating back to around the 4th Century BCE, it’s a story literally everybody heard when they were young. Like almost all of Aesop’s Fables, the story has a strong moral or lesson behind it. In this case, it’s “quit lying all the time or nobody will believe you when you actually have something important to say, you silly goose!”

Weirdly enough though, a recent educational study has found that after reading the story, some children were actually more likely to lie because, you know, kids are very suggestible. So maybe make sure that you discuss the moral after reading this one to your kiddos? Or at least make sure the little boy gets eaten at the end. We’ve got to really frighten them off!