The Shepherd Boy And The Wolf Animated Cover
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The Shepherd Boy And The Wolf Short Story & Audiobook

A little shepherd boy is bored so begins to play tricks on the villagers. And, well let’s just say there is a very important lesson to be learned about telling the truth.

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The Shepherd Boy And The Wolf

Once upon a time a very long time ago there was a young shepherd boy, whose job was to watch his master's sheep. He just sat there in the field every single day with nothing much to do but watch sheep munching at grass. He was so bored! Sometimes he talked to his dog or played a little tune on his shepherd's pipe but he quickly got bored with that, too.

A boy sits with his hands on his knees watching sheep.

One day, as he sat watching the sheep, he wondered what he would do if he ever saw a wolf come out of the deep, dark forest nearby. His master had told that if ever a wolf came by and attacked the flock he should call to the people in the village and they would come and chase it away.

Then he thought of something that would give him some real fun. He ran down to the village, yelling, "Wolf! Wolf!" as loudly as he could.

The boys runs with his arms in the air and mouth open.

Just as he hoped, the villagers heard him yelling, immediately stopped their work and ran straight up to the field. When they arrived, there was no wolf of course and the boy was laughing his head off at the trick he had played on them.

Only a day or two later the shepherd boy played the same trick and yelled, "Wolf! Wolf!" Once more, the villagers ran to help him, only to have the shepherd boy laugh at them again.

The boy pointing and laughing at a group of people.

After a long, hot and sunny day the sun was setting and there were shadows on the field from the trees in the nearby forest. The boy sat quietly, talking to his dog and then yawned. Right at that very moment, a wolf really did creep out from the forest and started chasing the sheep. 

The boy was now terrified and raced back down to the village, yelling, "Wolf! Wolf!" The villagers heard him yelling but this time they didn’t believe him as they had been fooled too many times before.

A grey wolf chasing sheep.

The sad part of the story is that the wolf killed quite a few sheep. As you can imagine, the shepherd boy’s master was furious and immediately told him never to come back to work for him ever again.

And the moral of that story is that sometimes people who tell lies are often not believed even when they speak the truth.

The End

Can you read The Shepherd Boy And The Wolf story for free?

Yes! You can read this modern retelling for free. Our story retellings closely follow the original storylines and add modern twists in the illustrations.

Is there a version of The Shepherd Boy And The Wolf read aloud?

You can choose to experience this story read aloud or you can read it yourself.