The Emperor's New Clothes
A vain emperor, two clever swindlers, and a child who dared to tell the truth
Page 1
Many years ago there lived an emperor who cared for nothing in all the world so much as fine new clothes. He spent every hour and every coin on his wardrobe, and where another ruler might be found with his army or at his council, this emperor was almost always to be found in his dressing-room, admiring himself in one splendid outfit after another. His great capital was a lively, prosperous city, full of markets and music, and everyone there knew their emperor's one great weakness. 'He is in his dressing-room,' people would say with a smile whenever he was wanted — and sure enough, that is exactly where he would be.
Page 2
One day two swindlers came to the city, giving out that they were master weavers who could weave the most magnificent cloth imaginable. But their cloth, they said, had a wonderful property: it was completely invisible to anyone who was either hopelessly stupid or unfit for his office. When the emperor heard of it, he was delighted — what a splendid way to find out which of his ministers were fools! He gave the two weavers a great sum of gold and the finest silk and thread, and set them up with grand looms in a room of the palace. The rogues pocketed the silk and the gold, set up their empty looms, and began busily to weave away at absolutely nothing at all.
Page 3
Eager to know how the marvellous cloth was coming along, the emperor sent his honest old minister to inspect it. The old man went in — and stared, and stared, and could see nothing whatever on the looms, for of course there was nothing there. His heart sank. 'Can it be that I am a fool,' he thought, 'or unfit for my office? No one must ever know!' So when the swindlers asked him, with great enthusiasm, whether he did not admire the glorious colours and the exquisite pattern, the poor flustered minister nodded and praised it to the skies, describing the beautiful cloth he could not see, and hurried back to tell the emperor it was the finest work he had ever beheld.
Page 4
At last the emperor himself came to see the famous cloth, with a crowd of his grandest courtiers. He looked at the looms — and, to his horror, he too could see nothing at all. 'What!' he thought, aghast. 'Am I a fool? Am I unfit to be emperor? This must never be known!' And so, drawing himself up, he declared the cloth utterly magnificent, and all his courtiers — who could see nothing either, and dared not say so — cried out in agreement, praising the wonderful colours and patterns and outdoing one another in admiration. The delighted emperor ordered a splendid suit made from the cloth at once, to wear in the great procession that very week.
Page 5
On the morning of the great procession, the two swindlers pretended to lift the new clothes from the looms, snipping the air with their great scissors and sewing with needles that held no thread. 'Here are the trousers, here is the robe, here is the splendid train!' they announced, miming each piece. They helped the emperor out of his own clothes and 'dressed' him in the magnificent nothing, turning him this way and that before the great mirror. The emperor, standing there in only his underthings, turned about and admired himself from every angle, and declared that the suit fit him to perfection and that he had never in his life worn anything so fine.
Page 6
And so the emperor set out through the city in his grand procession, walking beneath a golden canopy with his courtiers holding up the train of his invisible robe. All along the streets and from every window the people had gathered, and because everyone had heard that only a fool could not see the wonderful cloth, every single person cried out how beautiful it was — 'What colours! What a splendid fit!' — rather than be thought stupid. Not one of them would admit that the emperor appeared to be walking along in nothing but his underthings. On and on he strutted, prouder than ever, certain he was the most magnificently dressed man in all the world.
Page 7
Then, from somewhere in the crowd, a small child's clear voice piped up, saying the one simple thing that everyone could see but no one had dared to speak: 'But he hasn't got anything on!' The child's father tried to hush it — yet the little one had only said the truth, and the truth has a way of spreading. 'The child is right,' people began to whisper, and then to say aloud, until at last the whole crowd was murmuring it together: the emperor had no clothes on at all. The emperor heard it, and flushed, for in his heart he suddenly knew it was true. But he was the emperor, and the procession had begun — so he lifted his chin and walked on to the end, a little wiser about the dangers of vanity, while his courtiers held up the train of a robe that had never existed at all.
About this story
- Audience: kids (ages 6–12)
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