A long time ago, at the base of the snowy mountains, was a quiet town. Beside that town was a cool, babbling river, and across that river was a wide, grassy field. On that grassy field was a flock of sheep, eating to their hearts' content, and watching that flock of sheep was a shepherd boy. And that shepherd boy was bored.
So. So. Bored.
The shepherd boy had one job: to watch for any wolves that might come to eat the sheep. However, there hadn't been any wolves in months, and the shepherd boy had absolutely nothing to do.
But then, he had an idea. A marvellous idea. An idea that would make his day far more interesting.
The boy ran to town yelling “WOLF, WOLF!”. Within moments, shocked townspeople carrying pitchforks and large sticks were running out of the town, across the bridge, and into the field to defend the sheep against the wolves, only to find a flock of perfectly content sheep and one shepherd boy, laughing his head off.
All of the townspeople knew they had been tricked, and walked back into town, grumbling to themselves – all except for one man. He was a candlestick-maker by trade, and as he crossed the bridge back into town, he thought to himself, “My candlestick business has been failing for months. Everything I've tried to do to get people to come to my shop has been useless. And yet this little boy got a hundred people to pay attention to him by yelling a single word!” The candlestick-maker returned to his shop, pondering this.
A few hours later, in the middle of town, the villagers were alerted by the sound of someone yelling “FIRE! FIRE!” The townspeople quickly gathered buckets of water and dashed to the source of the blaze, only to find... a single lit candle in a stand sitting outside of the very intact and unburned candlestick shop. The candlestick-maker welcomed everyone: “Hiya, folks! Here's the fire! While you're here, would you be interested in buying some candles?”
Most of the townspeople left in a huff, annoyed that they had been tricked twice in one day, but a handful of people enjoyed the humor of the situation, went inside the shop, and bought a few candles. The candlestick-maker had his best sales day in months.
Next door, the baker watched all of this commotion closely. She was a shrewd businesswoman, and could clearly see the potential of this new marketing strategy. The next morning, as everyone was just waking up, she screamed from her shop “BEAR! BEAR!” All of the villagers once again grabbed their pitchforks and clubs and ran to the bakery, only to be greeted by a smiling baker holding out a tray with a variety of pastries. “I hope you'll bear with this terrible pun, but I know you're all hungry, and all baked goods are 40% off today!” The villagers were annoyed, but it was indeed breakfast time, and the pastries all smelled delicious. The baker, too, had a very successful sales day.
Soon, more businesses were getting into it. In the weeks that followed, there would hardly be a day that would go by without someone yelling about one emergency or another.
“LION!”
“TORNADO!”
“KILLER BEES!”
But on the eastern side of town, far away from the grassy field, a different kind of conversation was going on. Murmurs and grumblings were sweeping through the town's homes and businesses.
“Have you heard all of the horrible things happening on the western side of town?”
“Yes, isn't it terrible? I heard there were roaming tigers there last night!”
“I was going to go shopping for pastries, but with all of the mayhem over there, I think I'll wait until that side of town is safe again!”
A blacksmith that owned a metal shop on the eastern side of town overheard all of the rumors. He was no fool, and knew a business opportunity when he saw one. “Friends! The pandemonium happening on the western side of town is concerning to us all, and there's nothing more important than the safety of my neighbors! You need to defend yourselves against these threats. Come to my shop! Buy any weapon, and I'll throw in a dagger for free!” That day, the blacksmith sold out of his entire inventory of swords, spears, axes, bows, and arrows, and he was quite pleased with himself.
Back on the western side of town, the villagers there were troubled. “Neighbors, we have a real emergency now! Have you seen the people on the eastern side of town? They're all walking around with weapons strapped to their belts! Are they preparing for a revolt? Are they going to rob us or take over our homes?” And so, all of the townspeople on the western side of town started to frantically buy up all of the pitchforks, lances, knives, and anything else they could find.
Before long, the quiet town became not so quiet at all. The town mayor, who was caught quite off-guard by all of this, invited the people of the town to a council meeting to determine what was going on, but the meeting went nowhere. People from each side of town accused each other of starting conflicts and fear-mongering. The mayor stopped the meeting before a fight could erupt, but everyone left the meeting with more suspicion of the people on the other side of town.
The mayhem continued. Schoolchildren who had previously been friends needed to be separated from one another, and their parents gave long, impassioned pleas to the teachers and school board, asking why their schools weren't safe any more. It became rare for people on one side of town to ever do business on the other side, for fear of being called out or ridiculed. If a townsperson did decide to try and make peace between the east and west, they were shunned from both sides as being disloyal to their neighbors.
I do not know what happened to that town. All I know is that, while the villagers were arguing and showing each other contempt, outside of town there was a shepherd boy who watched helplessly as wolves devoured his sheep.
Oh, he yelled out for help, all right. And it's not that the townspeople didn't believe him.
They just couldn't hear him.