What is the moral of The Boy Who Cried Wolf?

What that actually means

This is usually taught as a story about lying, but the boy is not really lying to get anything. He is bored, and he has discovered that he can make a whole village move by opening his mouth. What he loses is not his reputation exactly, it is something more specific: the ability to be believed in an emergency. Trust is not a feeling people have about you, it is a thing you spend.

What happens in the story

A bored shepherd boy shouts that a wolf is coming, twice, for the fun of watching the village run up the hill. When a wolf actually comes, he shouts again and nobody moves.

Questions to ask afterwards

The lesson lands better when a child works it out themselves.

1. Why do you think the boy shouted the first time?
2. The villagers were angry the second time. Were they right to be?
3. What could the boy have done instead when he got bored?
4. Is there a difference between a joke and a lie?
5. How do you think the boy could earn back the villagers' trust?