皇帝的新装

Once upon a time, there was an emperor. He loved nothing but new clothes. The emperor had thousands of clothes. He changed his clothes every hour. When people spoke of him, they would say, " The emperor's in his dressing room. “ He went to the park sometimes. But that was not for public inspection. Instead, he went to show of his new clothes.

People talked a lot about the emperor. Recently, everyone had been discussing what new clothes the emperor would wear for the annual parade. One day, two cheats came to the country. They heard about the emperor's hobby. And they planned to earn some money from him.

The two cheats went to visit the emperor and told him that they were weavers. They said they could weave the most beautiful cloth in the world. The cloth was special because it could not be seen by those who were either stupid or not qualified for their positions. The emperor felt very curious. He gave the two cheats a lot of gold coins and asked them to weave the cloth for his new clothes.

The cheats asked for a large workshop to set up a loom. They also asked for the finest silk and more gold coins, which they kept to themselves. They pretended to be busy weaving cloth on the empty loom day and night. Everybody in the country heard about the magical cloth. They were all anxious to see the cloth and to test how stupid their neighbours were.

" How are they getting on with the cloth?” one day the emperor wondered. Then he decided to send his honest finance minister to take a look at the cloth. " Nobody is more competent than he. He must be able to see the cloth, " the emperor thought.

The finance minister went into the cheats' workshop. He was shocked when he saw the loom. " Why? I see nothing. Am I a fool? Am I unqualified? No, I will never let anybody know this! " he thought. The two cheats asked him to come closer to the loom. They boasted about the beauty and uniqueness of the cloth to the minister. As they spoke, the finance minister learned the cheats' words by heart.