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Aesop’s Fables — The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf Quotes by Aesop: Context & Meanings

1 quotation linked to Aesop’s Fables — The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf by or associated with Aesop, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

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Traditional Aesopic fable in Joseph Jacobs’s public-domain English collection

Topics and ideas

Trust, lying, credibility, false alarms and the consequences of repeated deception.

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1 quotations with source context and meaning

Source identified1
“A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth.”
Voice: Fictional character · Wise man of the village

Repeated deception damages credibility beyond the original lie: once listeners have learned to expect false alarms, even a later truthful warning can fail to restore belief in time.

Source note: Joseph Jacobs, The Fables of Aesop, “The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf,” Project Gutenberg #28. The wise man of the village gives the moral after the boy’s repeated false cries cause the villagers to ignore his real warning.