The Emperor's New Clothes

There was once an emperor who cared for new clothes more than for almost anything in his kingdom. He had coats for morning, robes for afternoon, and splendid garments for every hour when he wished to be admired. If anyone asked where the emperor might be found, the answer was often, “In the dressing room.”

One day two swindlers came to the city. They declared that they could weave the most wonderful cloth in the world. It would be light as air and beautiful beyond telling, but it possessed a curious quality: no one who was foolish, or unfit for his office, would be able to see it. The emperor at once thought such cloth would be useful, for then he might know who in his kingdom was wise and who was not.

The swindlers were given silk, gold, and a fine room with looms. Yet they put nothing upon the looms at all. Their hands moved busily through the empty air. When an old minister came to inspect the work, he saw nothing. But fear pricked him sharply. “Can it be that I am unfit?” he thought. So he praised the invisible pattern, and others did the same.

At last the emperor himself went to look. He saw only empty space, but he too praised the cloth. On the day of the procession, the swindlers pretended to dress him in the new garments and to hold up a train that was not there.

The people in the streets clapped and cried how magnificent he looked, each afraid to be the first honest voice. Then a little child said, “But he has nothing on!” The words spread from mouth to mouth like a clean wind. The emperor knew they were true, yet he held himself stiffly and walked on. The grand procession had been unmasked by one simple sentence.