The Emperor's New Clothes

The Emperor's New Clothes

There was once an Emperor who was so fond of clothes, he hardly thought about anything else. He ignored important business and avoided his advisors. He preferred to spend his days in front of a mirror, trying on fancy frilly shirts and preposterous pantaloons.

One day, two strangers came to see him.
"We make the finest clothes in the world," they said smoothly. "In fact, they are so incredible, they can only be seen by clever people."
"Really?" said the emperor.
"Oh yes," said the men. "They are completely invisible to anyone stupid — or anyone who can't do their job properly."

The Emperor robbed his chin. "They sound astonishing," he chuckled. "Make me a new outfit at once. It'll be just the thing for my next procession. I want something so amazing, people will talk about it for years!"
"It won't be cheap," warned the men.
"I don't care!" the Emperor declared. And he gave the men a sackful of money.

Several days later, with a great fanfare, the men unveiled the new clothes...
The Emperor gulped. He stared. He couldn't see a thing! "I must be a terrible emperor," he thought. But out loud, he said, "Wonderful!"
Nervously, he tried to put on the invisible outfit. Carefully, the men buttoned invisible buttons and tried invisible ribbons into invisible bows.
"How do I look?" asked the Emperor. His advisors glanced at each other. They couldn't see anything either, but they didn't dare to say so.
"Magnificent!" they cried.

So the Emperor set out proudly on the procession. A huge crowd had gathered to see his new clothes. Everyone had heard only clever people could see them. "Amazing," they told each other... until a small voice piped up, "Ooh," said a little boy. "The Emperor's got no clothes on."

The people around him took another look. "He's right you know," they began to laugh. The Emperor glanced down — and blushed from head to toe. "I've been tricked!" he realized. But there was a procession to finish. So he held his head high and strode on.
"At least this is an outfit they'll always remember," he sighed.