The Theme of "Charles"

The short story Charles is about a young boy named Laurie that goes to kindergarten.  Laurie goes to school and comes home with news of a horrendously behaving child name Charles.  Almost every day Laurie tells his parents about how bad Charles is and his parents believe him.  Eventually, there is a PTA meeting and at it the teacher tells Laurie’s mother that they don’t have a Charles in the kindergarten.  This basically tells you that Laurie was lying to his mother and that Laurie really was Charles.  The theme of Charles is to not always believe what you here.  I think that is the theme of the story because Laurie tells his parents all sorts of nasty things that “Charles” does and they accept everything he says without a question or surprise that Laurie knows so much about him.  It wasn’t to the end of the story that Laurie’s mother learned the truth about Laurie.  This story was made to teach you not to be too gullible.