Once upon a time, there was an emperor who was extremely fond of wearing beautiful new clothes. He spent all his money on this, neglecting his army and not caring whether his subjects were happy or not.
One day, two swindlers arrived. They claimed to be weavers and said that they could weave the most beautiful cloth in the world. This cloth was not only extraordinarily beautiful in color and pattern, but also had a strange property: anyone who was incompetent or hopelessly stupid could not see this cloth.
The emperor was very happy when he heard this. He thought, "If I wear such clothes, I can find out who in my kingdom are incompetent; I can tell who are the clever people and who are the fools." So he paid a great deal of money to the two swindlers and let them start working immediately.
The swindlers set up two looms and pretended to be working, but there was not even a shadow of anything on their looms. They asked the emperor for the best raw silk and gold, which they pocketed, but still pretended to be busy on the empty looms until late at night.
The emperor was very eager to know how the cloth was being woven, but he was worried that he could not see the cloth and would be regarded as a stupid person. So he first sent an old minister to check. The old minister came to the weaving room and stared hard, but he saw nothing. The swindlers pointed to the empty loom and asked him if the pattern of the cloth was very beautiful and the color was very pretty. The old minister didn't want to say that he saw nothing. He thought, "Am I a stupid person? I mustn't let anyone know about this." So he praised the cloth as described by the swindlers to the skies and went back to report to the emperor that the cloth was very beautiful.
After hearing the minister's report, the emperor sent another official to check. This official also saw nothing, but he didn't want to be considered incompetent or stupid either, so he also praised the cloth woven by the swindlers highly.
When the cloth was finally woven, the emperor went to see it in person. The emperor couldn't see the cloth either, but he didn't want to be regarded as a stupid person, so he pretended that he could see it and loudly praised the cloth woven by the swindlers. The swindlers made a new set of clothes for the emperor with this cloth, and also said that the clothes were as light as a spider's web, and the person wearing them would feel as if there was nothing on their body.
On the day of the parade, the emperor stripped naked and walked in the street wearing his "new clothes". The streets were lined with common people. Everyone didn't want to be considered stupid, so they all praised the emperor's new clothes as extremely beautiful, how gorgeous the color was, and how well - tailored it was. Until a child cried out, "But he isn't wearing any clothes at all!" At this time, the common people began to whisper among themselves. And the emperor, hearing the child's words, trembled a little, but still toughed it out and completed the parade ceremony.
This story tells us not to be blinded by vanity, nor to blindly follow others' opinions, but to be honest and brave and dare to tell the truth.
