Folktales

The Shepherd's
Mistake
Early every morn-
ing, a shepherd took
his  flock  of  sheep
out  in  the  fields  to
graze.  He  would  sit
by watching - as the
sheep  lazily  munched  on  fresh  grass.
After  they  had  eaten,  he  would  round
them  up  and  walk  back  home.
Sometimes while watching his flock, he
would curl up in a quiet corner and go
off to sleep. 
One day, the shepherd caught a wolf
which had strayed into the field, eyeing
his  sheep.  However,  it  was  some  dis-
tance  away  and  it  made  no  effort  to
come  nearer.  The  shepherd  at  first
stood  on  guard  against  the  wolf,  as
against  an  enemy,  and  kept  a  strict
watch over its movements. 
But  the  wolf  did  not  do  anything.
When  the  shepherd  herded  the  sheep
and  headed  home  with  his  flock,  the
wolf  quietly  followed  them  at  a  dis-
tance.
This continued for a while. The shep-
herd would find the wolf waiting at the
edge of the field every morning. But it
made  not  the  slightest  effort  to  seize
the sheep and would just watch. So, by
and  by,  the  shepherd  let  down  his
guard a bit. A few days later, he began
to  actually  look  forward  to  the  wolf's
presence. 
The  wolf,  who  generally  sat  on  a
large  piece  of  rock,  looked  like  a  big
sheep  dog  from  afar.  The  shepherd
thought that other wild animals or mis-
chief-makers  would  be  scared  of  the
'dog's presence and not harm his flock
while it was around. 
Now, he began to look upon the wolf
as a guardian of his flock. One day, in
the  middle  of  grazing  his  sheep,  the
shepherd  was  called  back  to  home
urgently. Leaving the sheep entirely in
charge of the wolf, he left. 
When  he  came  back,  what  did  he
find?  That  the  wolf  had  eaten  most  of
his  flock,  with  only  a  few  sheep  wan-
dering  about.  Carcasses  of  the  dead
sheep lay around, everywhere.
The  shepherd  sat  down  in  shock
after witnessing the slaughter. "Serves
me right," he moaned to himself, "after
all, I entrusted the welfare of my flock
to a wolf."