"How did you know Little White was lying?"
The old man looked a little helpless. "Little White was lucky to see a tiger..."
The old man paused.
He didn't know if seeing a wild tiger counted as good luck.
But seeing a tiger and coming away unharmed certainly did.
"Tigers aren't easy to find."
"Otherwise, why had you and everyone else in the village never seen one?"
"Little White—"
"No!"
One of the children shouted in protest.
"Little White pointed to a place and said the tiger was right there."
"But none of us could see it."
"Yeah, exactly."
"There wasn't any tiger there, but Little White insisted there was."
"Little White had looked so many times and failed to find a tiger, so he lied to fool us."
"That's right."
"We're not idiots."
"So what if he said there was a tiger?"
"We didn't see one."
"...But Little White was serious."
"Could Little White..."
A child pointed at his own head. "Have something wrong with him up here?"
"Don't talk nonsense!"
The old man scolded them angrily.
The children were a little startled.
But it wasn't the first time they'd been yelled at.
They'd caused enough trouble to get scolded more times than they could count.
They weren't all that afraid of the old man's anger.
A few seconds later, one child muttered, "Then Little White was lying."
"Either there's something wrong with his head, or he's lying."
"Kids from the city lie too."
"He's too proud to admit it."
"Even after we called him out, he still wouldn't admit he was wrong."
"He kept saying there was a tiger."
"Where would a tiger come from?"
"I told you... If there were a tiger in the woods behind the mountain, how come nobody in the village had ever seen