The Emperor’s New Clothes

- Condensed from the original tale of Hans Christian Anderson

A long, long time ago, there lived an Emperor who was very, very vain. He did not care about
inspecting his troops or ruling his Empire. His days were spent trying on fancy clothes. He had an
outfit for every hour of the day!
Nothing much happened in the Empire, until one day, two suspicious – looking mean arrived in
the palace. “We must see the Emperor in secret!” they said. The Emperor received the two strangers,
not knowing that they were bad men, out to get rich at his expense.
The told the Emperor that they had discovered the secret to making wonderful, new cloth.
According to them, this new cloth was not only lovely, it was also magical. The two men said, “To a
wise and clever man like Your Majesty, the cloth is the finest that can ever be seen. But to a man who
is stupid to unfit for his office, the cloth is completely invisible!” the foolish Emperor believed this tall
tale. He handed the two strangers two bags of gold and said, “Start weaving at once!” He thought,
“Now I shall find out who of my ministers are fools.”
The two bad men set up their looms in the palace the very next day. Everyday they asked the
Emperor for another bag of money as payment, and every night they pretended to work on their
empty looms; pretending to weave the “magic cloth” that wasn’t there.
Word about the magic cloth spread throughout the Empire. Everybody was eager to find out
just how stupid their neighbor was. Several weeks later, the Emperor, accompanied by his wise and
honorable Prime Minister visited the weavers to check on the cloth. The two bad men gladly
“displayed” the “magic cloth” to the Emperor and the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister was horrified
because no matter how hard he tried, he could not see the “magic cloth.” “I must be a complete fool,”
the Prime Minister thought. But not wishing to lose his job, he told the Emperor, “It is the finest piece
of cloth I have ever seen!”
The emperor was even more horrified. “Good gracious,” he thought. I can’t see anything. I
must be a fool” But since he did not want to be exposed as a bad Emperor, he handed the men more
gold and said, “Make me a suit at once! I must wear it at the parade tomorrow. The two bad men
smiled at each other. They could hardly believe what a fool the Emperor was!
The next morning, the two proudly presented to the Emperor the “magic suit” Holding the
imaginary coat and cape, the pretended to dress the Emperor. Not wishing to look like a fool, the
Emperor pretended to put on imaginary clothes. “The suit is splendid!” the Emperor said, pretending
to admire the “magic suit” that he could not see!
And so, the Emperor paraded through the street, without so much as a stitch on. Since nobody
wanted to be exposed as a fool, everybody loudly admired the Emperor “new clothes.” That is,
everybody but one little boy who saw the simple truth. “But he’s got nothing on!” yell the little boy, as
he pointed at the naked Emperor.
Soon, everybody realized that the little boy was right. The Emperor realized this too, but
bravely and rather foolishly went on with the parade.
The story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” shows us that the more we try to make ourselves look
good, the more we end up looking like fools. It also teaches us that it is very important to be honest,
especially to ourselves.