The Emperor's Tailor

The Emperor's Tailor is a story about how ideas can escape from the context in which they are expressed, leading to adverse consequences. Sometimes, when the smart play at being stupid, the foolish listen and think that what they're doing is wise.

It is a derivative of The Emperor's New Clothes.

Story

Once upon a time, in a far off kingdom, there was an Emperor. This Emperor loved clothes, and would frequently have his tailors design new and extravagant designs for him to walk around the city in.

One day, his tailors were sitting around joking about his constant demands for ever more artistic clothes, when one of them came up with an amusing joke. Pretending like he was showing off a wonderful outfit, he displayed it this way and that, and even on a mannequin. His fellow tailors all played along to their great amusement, complimenting this masterpiece.

Unbeknownst to them, one of the Emperor advisors was watching them as this happened and told the Emperor that the this tailor had come up with a truly marvelous garment. On hearing this, the Emperor demanded that he be dressed in this wonderful clothing for his next parade.

The Advisor, accompanied with other curious nobles from the court, then returned to the tailors and asked for the new clothes. Not wanting to seem like a fool who knows little of clothing, he copied the phrases and adjectives the tailors jokingly used, praising the Tailor who made it for his eloquence with fabric.

This Tailor, thinking the Advisor was merely playing along, mimicked taking the clothes off the mannequin and placing them in the Advisor's hands to the oohs and aahs of the others in attendance.

All of them then returned to the court, where they ceremoniously handed the Emperor his new clothes. The Emperor was a powerful man, but also did not want to appear a fool, and the fact that so many people seemed to believe that these clothes were real convinced him that they were real.

The next day, when he went out clothed in these new vestments, no one dared remark that he was stark naked until one little boy spoke up. "The Emperor's wearing nothing at all!" said the boy, prompting murmurs from the crowd. At that moment, the Emperor decided that he had been played for a fool but he could not show his anger just then.

When he returned from the parade, he walked up to the Advisor and asked him why he had made a fool of him. The Advisor, fearing that he would be put to death, said that he had similarly been conned by the tailors. And the other nobles of the court agreed with him, fearing that they too might face the Emperor's wrath.

When the Emperor sent his guards to arrest the tailors so that they may be put to death, however, they found that they were all gone. Having seen that the Emperor had gone out wearing nothing, they had realized what would result from their joke, and had fled from that nation.