Once upon a time, a king ruled over a large kingdom. He was fascinated with new clothes and modern fashion.
One day, two fraudulent weavers came to the king’s minister and claimed, “We can weave a marvellous fabric from which we can make marvellous clothes.”
They asserted in front of the king, “Such clothes cannot be seen by the foolish, idiotic
people and the persons who fail at their duty and do not deserve their positions.”
They requested the king to give them some finest silk and gold thread to make the clothes. The king gave them the finest silk and gold thread.
Both the weavers started weaving. After a few days a minister was sent by the king to the weavers to see the progress of their work.
One of the weavers asked the minister, “Sir, what are you thinking? Have you liked the clothes?” The
minister thought, ‘If I say that I am not able to see the clothes, it would mean that I don’t deserve my position.’ So, he told them, “Indeed, they are very wonderful.”
After returning he told the king that the clothes were really fascinating.
The king sent another minister to the weavers. When asked by the weavers about the clothes, he also thought and replied in the same way as the first one.
Both the ministers described the beauty of the clothes to the king in the same way.
Now, the king himself went to the weavers to see the wonderful clothes. He also found nothing but did not say anything thinking that people would take him unfit for his throne.
Next day, the weavers went to the king and asked him to wear the beautiful clothes. They pretended to dress the king in his new marvellous attire.
The weavers urged the king to look into the mirror for himself. They pretended that the king looked magnificent in his new clothes. The king found himself wearing no dress but he kept silent.
The king walked in procession to show his magnificent clothes to the people of his kingdom. He
felt on cloud nine wearing no clothes.
Everyone saw the king without the clothes on but nobody said anything. All of a sudden, a child shouted, “Our king is naked. He has no clothes on.”
Now everybody began to shout, “It is true that our king is naked. Where are his marvellous clothes?” The king felt ashamed. But he kept mum. Now he had understood everything.
The king went back to the palace. He realized that he was befooled by the weavers who fled from the kingdom with the finest silk and gold thread.
