The Thing About the Story

... of the boy who cried wolf, is that there really was a wolf.

In the versions of the story I know, the boy was just a punk who enjoyed the spectacle of seeing the villagers all rush out to defend the sheep on a false premise, or else his power in being able to make them do so.

But the story would have turned out the same in the end if he was sincere, but near-sighted, and couldn't tell a wolf from a squirrel or a sheep.