...admit that they didn't see anything, so they pretended to pick up the train and held their hands as if they were carrying it. The emperor walked in the procession under his crimson canopy. And all the people of the town, who had lined the streets or were looking down from the windows, said that the emperor's new clothes were beautiful. "What a magnificent robe! And the train! How well the emperor's clothes suit him!" None of them were willing to admit that they hadn't seen a thing; for if anyone did, then he was either stupid or unfit for the job he held. Never before had the emperor's clothes been such a success.
"But he doesn't have anything on!" cried a little child. "Listen to the innocent one," said the proud father. And the people whispered among each other and repeated what the child had said. "He doesn't have anything on. There's a little child who says that he has nothing on." "He has nothing on!" shouted all the people at last. The emperor shivered, for he was certain that they were right; but he thought, "I must bear it until the procession is over." And he walked even more proudly, and the two gentlemen of the imperial bedchamber went on carrying the train that wasn't there.

Hans Christian Andersen

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