Someone who raises false alarms cries wolf like the shepherd boy in Aesop’s fable who shouted “Wolf! Wolf!” to make fun of the villagers or attract attention. The villagers, of course, later wouldn’t believe him, and he got no help when a wolf did attack his flock. Although wolves rarely if ever attack humans – there is no documented case of such an attack in North America – much of their prey is lambs and calves. Thus this tale is familiar in almost every language. However, a Chinese version of it, one of the earliest, makes no mention of a wolf. It seems that the emperor Yu Wang of the third dynasty liked to amuse his favorite concubine by ringing alarm bells that warned his people that the enemy was approaching. His concubine always laughed when she saw people hurrying back into the walled city, but the people soon came to regard the bells as meaningless, and when the enemy really appeared the city was easily captured. Later tales – with wolves in them – may have derived from this one.