The Princess And The Pea

There once lived a prince who was in search of a suitable princess. He traveled across the seven seas in search of the right one, but he wasn’t sure if the princesses he met were genuine. Disheartened, he eventually returned home.

One evening, there was a terrible thunderstorm. Having heard a knock on the door, the queen went to open it. 

A princess was standing there in soiled and muddy clothes. Her hair looked dirty; she was thoroughly drenched, and her shoes were covered in mud. 

She claimed to be a real princess. “We’ll soon find out the truth,” said the queen. The queen went to the bedroom and took all the mattresses off the bed. She then placed a pea at the bottom and laid twenty mattresses on top of it. Next, she placed twenty feathered beds on top of the mattresses. 

The princess was asked to sleep on the bed for the night. In the morning, the queen questioned the princess about the quality of her sleep. The princess replied, “I just couldn’t sleep all night. God knows what, but there was something very hard on the bed.” The queen then understood that she was indeed a real princess, as only a real princess would feel the discomfort through the twenty mattresses and feathered beds. Knowing that she was a real princess, the prince took her as his wife.