The Nurse Who Cried Wolf First
Aesop's Fables · 1 min read
A nurse, struggling to soothe a particularly fussy baby who would not stop crying despite every gentle attempt, finally said in exasperated jest, loud enough to be heard through the open window, "Stop that crying at once, or I'll throw you out to the wolf waiting outside!" A real wolf, lurking near the house hoping for scraps or an unguarded chicken, happened to overhear the threat and, taking it entirely literally, settled in nearby to wait patiently for what he assumed would soon be an easy meal delivered directly to him.
He waited through the morning, then the afternoon, growing hungrier and increasingly puzzled as the crying eventually stopped, the baby was soothed and fed as nurses actually do, and no child was ever thrown from any window at all. By evening, thoroughly disappointed and having wasted an entire day of hunting elsewhere on a promise that was never real, the wolf gave up and slunk away hungry into the darkening forest.
When he later told his mate what had happened, expecting sympathy for his wasted day, she only laughed at him. "Did you truly believe," she asked, "that a human's angry words in a moment of frustration were an actual promise meant to be kept? Humans say all sorts of things they never intend to follow through on when they're tired or annoyed — you'll starve for good if you start taking every human threat at face value." The wolf, embarrassed, never made that particular mistake again.
Moral of the story
Angry words spoken in a moment of frustration are rarely an actual promise meant to be kept — taking every such threat literally will only leave you waiting for nothing.