And so Fintán, when he was a boy, used to keep watch over his father's flocks alone in the woods. But the boy, leaving the flocks to themselves, would go every day to read with a man named Cruimther Grellan, who dwelled in Achad Broan. Taking notice of this, Tulchán berated the boy, saying:
‘Why did you set free the flocks among the wolves in the woods’?
And his mother gently pleaded for him, saying:
‘Thus far no [animal] from among our flocks died’.
Then Fintán said to his father:
‘Have no fear, for as long as you shall be in this world no [animal] from among your flocks will be killed by wolves or by any other beast, so long as you let me [go] to the servants of God to read’.
And on the following day Tulchán saw two wolves watching over his flocks as if they were ordinary dogs. Since that day Tulchán's flocks were, at all times, always watched over by wolves, and the boy was sent away to read.