This is an excerpt from Daniel Quinn's 'The Story of B', in which the classic tale of the Emperor Who Had No Clothes is embellished...

"...What outraged them was the idea that, after defeating the best minds of a dozen generations, the Prime Minister could explain the Emperor's chilliness so simply. The feeling seemed to be that critical problems (like the Emperor's chill) must absolutely have complex and impenetrable causes, and they must be difficult (and perhaps even impossible) to solve...What was distressing them was not the fact that the cause of the chill was now known but rather the fact that it had always been known---but never as a cause. It had stared them in the face, and looking beyond it to remote and unintelligible causes, they had missed its significance. Throughout the empire, there was literally no one who was ignorant of the fact that their shivering monarch... had... no... clothes."

Epilogue...

"When the scholars in the capital of the Chilly Emperor had had a few days to think things over, they began to recover their wits and to see that all was not lost to them after all. They called a press conference that was twice as solemn as the Prime Minister's, and three times as well attended. After the various media representatives had been wined and dined regally, the head of the Royal Commission for Chilly Research called the meeting to order, and made the following announcement. 'It is perfectly true that the Emperor is naked,' he said. 'We have always known this and have always chosen to ignore it, because it's a red herring. The causes of the Emperor's condition are many, complex and difficult for laymen to understand--and they cannot be reduced to this single, childish notion: that he is cold because he's wearing nothing but his birthday suit. The suggestion that warm clothing might alleviate the Emperor's discomfort is charming and well meant but will not be recommended for implementation or further study.' Following this announcement, the Prime Minister was dismissed for incompetence, the scholars' grants were all renewed, and the Emperor went on shivering into a snowy old age."