And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Have you seen how Ahab has appeared to humble himself before me? Because he has an unregenerate heart and remains under my wrath, I have no regard for his so-called ‘humbling himself’ before me, I will bring the disaster in his days just as I originally said.”
This is not what First Kings 21.27-29 really says.
Obviously the author of 1Kings didn’t understand that the outward appearance is irrelevant and it is only the heart that matters.