A boy out guarding the village’s sheep, their only source of food during the long winter in their hardscrabble hills, was bored one morning, and amused himself with a childish jape.
Curiously, the trickery of the boys in two of the stories and that of the wolf and boy in the last one produced a better outcome than the original, in which the boy's admitted foolishness caused the villagers to let down their guard completely.
Moral: The clever brigand can cause less harm than the lazy fool.
Who lets a boy guard the villages only source of food for the winter?
Curiously, the trickery of the boys in two of the stories and that of the wolf and boy in the last one produced a better outcome than the original, in which the boy's admitted foolishness caused the villagers to let down their guard completely.
Moral: The clever brigand can cause less harm than the lazy fool.