Tales From My Grandmother (The King's Clothes)

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Once upon a time, there was a kingdom called Ajebori. Ajebori was a prosperous kingdom with a huge market where merchants from various kingdoms converged to sell their goods. In all the surrounding kingdoms, there was no land as prosperous as Ajebori or a king as wealthy as King Agberaga of Ajebori.

One year, King Agberaga wanted to celebrate his birthday and plans were made for the celebration. The best caterers in all the land were contracted to prepare the meals, the best musicians were invited to sing. To cut the long story short, the best of everything was prepared for the celebration

However, there was one problem. King Agberaga was not pleased with any of the clothes his tailors brought for him. For his birthday, he wanted to wear a kind of clothe no man had ever worn in all of history. Various tailors from different kingdom thronged Oba Agberaga's palace daily with various exotic clothing materials. However, he refused all the materials they brought. He wanted a cloth that was made specially for him

One day, three tailors from a foreign land visited the palace and demanded a private audience with the king. When they got to King Agberaga's presence, they paid homage to him and told him that they had brought several materials and hoped that he would pick one. They showed him several exotic materials that were worn by the kings of distant lands. However, Oba Agberaga refused them all.

The three tailors reached into their bag as if to bring out another material but they brought nothing out of the bag. They showed what appeared to be empty air to the king. They told him that it was a clothing material that they had journeyed to the realm of the spirits to get. They informed him that only intelligent people could see it and asked him what he thought about it.

King Agberaga was perplexed but in a bid not to look stupid, he praised the clothing material and immediately ordered that the tailors make him a beautiful Agbada from the cloth. He paid them handsomely and asked them to get to work immediately.

On the day of the celebration, the tailor arrived at the palace and dressed the king up in the "invisible cloth". The king believed that he had found the perfect clothes and proudly departed for his celebration. All the court attendants were dumbfounded when they saw the king approaching them in his underwear with the crown on his head and the staff of office in his hand. King Agberaga asked them what they thought about the cloth, proudly stating the fact that it could only be seen by intelligent people.No one was bold enough to say that they could not see the cloth, for fear of seeming foolish and they all praised the beauty of the clothes.

There was an uproar at the venue of the celebration, when everyone saw the king in his underwear with the crown on his head and the staff of office in his hand. In no time, the news of how the king was supposedly wearing a cloth which could only be seen by intelligent people . Everyone praised the quality of the cloth and some even stated loudly that they would be getting such clothe.

All this continued but then, the king's childhood friend, who was widely regarded as the most intelligent man in the kingdom summoned the courage and called the king to a secluded area, where he sincerely told him that he had no clothes on. The king was shocked at what he had suspected was true all along and immediately left for the palace in shame.

He ordered that the tailors who had made the clothes be brought to him but they were no where to be found