A few years ago there lived an employee who was quite an average employee who made a very average wage, with one exception: he cared much about his above average lifestyle. One day he heard from two swindlers...lenders, named...you name them...that said they could make the finest loan from the most meager income. This loan, they said, also had a special interest rate that was invisible to anyone who was either stupid or not fit for his position, including most of the leadership of the lending institution itself.
Being a bit nervous about whether he himself would be able to see the dept associated with the invisible interest rate, the employee first sent two of his trusted friends to consider it. Of course, neither would admit that they could see the increased payments looming and so they praised it.
All the townspeople had also heard of the entry loan and were interested to learn how stupid their neighbors were but not wanting to be left out also bought into the invisible interest creep.
The employee then allowed himself to be wrapped in the debt for a procession through town, never admitting that he was too unfit and stupid to see what he was really getting himself into. He was afraid that the other people would think that he was stupid.
Of course, all the townspeople wildly praised the magnificent introductory rates of the employee, afraid to admit that they could not see the coming disaster. The further he walked the deeper in debt he became. The bills he gathered were stuffed into his trousers. As the miles increased his bills grew bigger, until a small child said:
'Look, his pants are down!'
This was whispered from person to person until everyone in the crowd began to notice that they too had their pants down in various stages. The employee finally heard the whispers and felt the breeze across his backside, but held his head high and waddled amongst a crowd of bewildered people. His lifestyle was high, his debt was high and behold...his pants were low! Oh, the employee's new woes!
The Emperor's New Clothes is a Danish fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen and first published in 1837, as part of Eventyr, Fortalte for BÃ?rn (Fairy Tales, Told for Children). It was originally known as Keiserens Nye KlÃ?der. Stephen McNiel translated it a bit different for 2007.
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