What does the shepherd do about the one lost sheep in the parable?
He leaves the ninety-nine alone in the wilderness and goes after the one lost sheep until he finds it. The ninety-nine remain out on the desert, while the shepherd searches for the lost one that knows it is lost and cries out.
Les explains that in this parable the ninety-nine are not pictured as safely in the fold; they are out in the wilderness, out on the desert. The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine alone in the wilderness and goes after that which is lost until he finds it. Les also notes that sheep are dumb, and if a bunch of sheep are left out on a desert with only scattered clumps of grass, in an hour or two they are all over the place and lost—but they do not know it. The one lost sheep, however, is caught in a crevice and cries because he is lost and knows it.