The Emperor’s New Clothes

Once upon a time, in a country far away, there was an emperor who loved clothes. He did not care about his people, he did not care about his soldiers, he did not care about education or food or medicine or music – he only cared about his clothes. So he kept on buying new clothes. He spent all the money on getting new clothes made for himself. He had a new dress for every day. He sent messages everywhere for people to come and give him newer and newer material and suits.

One day, two rogues heard about this emperor. They came to his court and they told him, “We can weave you the most beautiful and magical cloth ever seen on this earth. And we can make you a very majestic suit out of it,”

“Please make it,” said the king eagerly.

“But this is a very, very special cloth,” said the rogues. “Only clever people can see it. Stupid people who are not suitable for their position in society cannot see it. It’s a very wonderful material. That is why we want to give it to Your Majesty, who is a very wonderful and intelligent person.”

“Yes, yes, yes,” said the emperor. “Please make it. Then I can see who is unfit for their jobs in my land.”

“We need a lot of gold, the finest silk, gold thread and two weaving machines and a place to work,” said the rogues.

The emperor gave them everything. The rogues packed everything away and pretended to work at their looms. They worked all day. They worked all night. They wove nothing, but pretended that there was cloth being woven.

The emperor came to see the cloth. He could see nothing. “Am I unintelligent? Am I not suitable for my job?” he thought and went away troubled. Everyone in the country now knew that only wise people could see the cloth. He thought he will get others to see the cloth and get their opinion of it.

He sent his ministers there and asked them to see what the material looked like. The rogues took them to the loom and pointed at nothing. “Isn’t this beautiful?” they asked. “Aren’t the colors splendid? Just look at this design here! Isn’t it magnificent?”

The ministers did not want the others to think that they could not see anything. They did not want others to think that they didn’t deserve their jobs. So they said,

“Yes, it’s very beautiful.” “The colours are lovely!” “How magnificent it looks.” They went to the emperor and told him the same thing.

The emperor sent his military next. They said the same thing.

The emperor sent the teachers, they said the same things.

The emperor sent in ordinary citizens. They did not want to look stupid. So, they said the same thing.

A big procession was organized to show off the new clothes to all the people. They were all very excited. They all knew about this special suit now. The rogues asked for more and more gold thread and silks. They packed it all away in their bags and pretended to work at the empty loom. The night before the procession, they got lamps lit all round their room and worked away with needles and thread. They pretended to cut and sew and look at – nothing.

In the morning, the rogues came in pretending to carry something heavy in their hands. They held up the “dress” and said, “Have you ever seen anything more beautiful than this, your majesty?”

“No indeed,” said the emperor. He did not see anything. But he did not want his people to think that he was stupid.

“We will dress you if you take off your clothes,” said the rogues. So the emperor did. He was naked but no one wanted to admit that they could not see the suit, so they did not say anything. The rogues pretended to dress him carefully. They smoothed out the collar, tightened his trousers, spread out the cape and asked the noblemen to carry the end of the cape. They couldn’t see anything, but they held their hands out and the rogues carefully arranged the cape on their palms.

“You look magnificent,” said the rogues.

“Yes, yes, yes, you look wonderful” said the ministers and the miliary and teachers and everyone else.

The band started playing music. And the procession started moving forward. There were hundreds of people lining the roads, because they all wanted to see this magnificent dress. Everyone gasped seeing the naked emperor. But no one wanted to say anything. They did not want anyone to think they were stupid. So they all said, Wow! Magnificent! Lovely! Majestic!

But a small child in the crowd shouted out, “The emperor is naked.” Everyone heard him, including the emperor. He looked down and saw that he had no clothes. The noblemen dropped their hands. They realized that they were holding nothing. Everyone saw the naked emperor. They all started laughing and hooting. They shouted, “The Emperor is naked.”

The emperor hurried back to his palace and called for the rogues to be beheaded. But the rogues had long gone with their gold and gold threads and their expensive silks.