The Emperor’s New Clothes is a classic bedtime story that describes the dumbness of a King. In the story, everyone praises the tailor’s invisible dress to not look foolish. Ironically, they were fooled by the tailors.
Once there was an Emperor who was fond of fancy dresses. Instead of working for the betterment of his kingdom, he would love to get new dresses. In a day, he used to try on many dresses that kept him busy.
Everyone in his kingdom knew that the Emperor loved fancy dress. Some even applauded his dresses. But then two men came to the town. They heard about the emperor’s love for clothes.
Those two men were liars, and they rumored in the town that they were the best tailors. This news reached the Emperor, and he called them into his palace.
“You are new tailors in the town?” The Emperor asked.
“Yes, Emperor. We are the finest tailors in the world, and we make dresses that only intelligent people can see,” They said.
The emperor was amazed and ordered them to make a dress for him. Both tailors demanded gold coins which the emperor fulfilled. He was eagerly waiting for the dress.
The tailors started working, but they were fooling everyone. As there were not any clothes, they moved their hands in the air as they were sewing the dress.
“Is my dress ready?” The emperor asked them.
“Yes, it’s ready. But as we said, only intelligent people can see it. It’s on the table, see it,” Tailors remarked.
The Emperor saw nothing on the table. He thought, “I can’t see anything on the table. Means I’m not an intelligent person.”
“Yes, I can see it,” The emperor lied and praised the tailors for the dress. The next day, the emperor wore that invisible dress at the parade. Everyone thought that it was an invisible dress, and people started appreciating the tailors.
Suddenly, a young boy from the crowd noticed the emperor. He cried, “Look, the emperor is naked and not wearing any clothes.” He started laughing which made everyone laugh.
People found out that there are no such invisible clothes but it was the emperor’s dumbness. The emperor was shy being without clothes, and he ran inside the palace. The tailors had tricked everyone and escaped with a lot of gold coins.
Also read, The Ant and the Grasshopper.