Once there lived a cowboy in a small village. There was a forest beside the village. In one corner of that forest, there was a large tree. He sat under that large tree every day, while his flock of cows grazed on the grass of the meadow. He passed his time in this way. He had no other work to do without grazing the cows. As the cowboy felt bored, he wanted some excitement in his life.
He hit upon a plan to get some fun. One day he made a loud cry saying “Help! Help! A tiger is here!!”. The people of that village heard his loud voice. They came hurriedly towards him with weapons. They were finding the tiger in the field but didn’t see any tiger there. On the other hand, the large flock of cows was grazing quietly. Seeing the villagers, the cowboy began to laugh in amusement. He told the villagers that he was just making a big joke. Hearing this, the villagers became very angry and scolded him for raising a false alarm. They warned the cowboy not to repeat this.
Though the boy thought that he was clever, actually he was a great fool. He did not realize what mistake he had done. Then after a few days, he repeated the trick again and started shouting saying, “Help! Help! A tiger is here!!”. None came to help him for the first time. Then he made another trick. This time he pretended to cry in fear for some time. The villagers thought that he had fallen in real danger. So, they again came quickly to help him. But the villagers found that it was great fun when they saw the boy starting to laugh. They went to their house scolding the boy again.
Some days passed. Then one day, the boy fell in real danger. Suddenly a tiger came out of the forest. The cows were grazing in the field. The tiger killed some cows. The boy became frightened. He shouted again and again and cried saying, “Tiger! Tiger! Help!!Help!!”. The villagers heard the crying of the boy but none came to help him this time. As the boy made fun two times before, the villagers thought that he was making a joke again. The tiger came nearer to the boy. At last, it attacked him. At that moment the boy struggled hard so that he could save himself. But within a few minutes, the tiger killed the ill-fated clever boy.
Moral: Nobody trusts a liar.