The Emperor's Tailors

The confidence man of Herman Melville's tale boards the Fidèle on the Mississippi on April Fool's day and proceeds, through a succession of disguises, to talk the passengers out of their money. What unsettles the reader is not the swindler's skill but the passengers' appetite. The con works because they want it to. Each mark supplies, from their own optimism or vanity or wish to appear charitable, the credulity the con requires. Melville's swindler does not force the strongbox. They are handed the key, with thanks.This is the truth the more famous fable softens. In Hans Christian Andersen's (1805–1875) telling, the emperor's nakedness is exposed by a child—an outsider, untutored in the flattery the court runs on, who simply says what they see. The emperor, unwilling to accept anything untoward has happened, continues with the procession.The boardroom version follows a similar path—the procession continues, but there is no child to call out the fraud. This is because unlike the fairy…