Chinese 成语 Equivalent?: "Never Cry Wolf" What is the Chinese 成语 Equivalent for "Never Cry Wolf"? Never Cry Wolf: The Boy Who Cried Wolf, also known as The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf, is a fable attributed to Aesop. The protagonist of the fable is a bored shepherd boy who entertained himself by tricking nearby villagers into thinking a wolf is attacking his flock of sheep. When they came to his rescue, they found that the alarms were false and that they had wasted their time. When the boy was actually confronted by a wolf, the villagers did not believe his cries for help and the wolf ate the flock (and in some versions the boy). The moral is stated at the end of the fable as: Even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed. The liar will lie once, twice, and then perish when he tells the truth.