Concerning hsin there is one saying which is particularly interesting. Yu Tzu said, ‘To be trustworthy in word (hsin) is close to being moral in that it enables one’s words to be repeated’ (I.13). The tragedy of the boy who cried ‘Wolf!’ is that when he repeated his cry nobody took him seriously because he was not hsin on the previous occasions. Being trustworthy in word is close to being moral precisely because of this aspect of trustworthiness, and it is to this aspect that Yu Tzu wanted to draw our attention.10
