There once was a handsome Prince who wanted to marry a princess but she had to be a real princess. It is very hard to tell a real princess from those who are not.
His mother told him that only a real princess would be able to feel something so small underneath many soft things. After all, a real princess needed a perfect, soft bed.
Every time a woman claiming to be a princess came, he told them to rest for the night and in the morning he would decide. Every time, he would put a pea underneath the guest’s bed and then piled 20 mattresses and 20 blankets on top. The next morning, he would ask the guest how they slept, for a real princess would be able to feel a pea under 20 mattresses and 20 blankets. None of the princesses were able to feel the pea, for how could one feel something that small even if they were a princess?
Each of the girls were then sent away from the castle and lied as they rode away in their gold carriages. “The Prince was just not who I wanted to wed,” they would all say. The Prince was so handsome and his kingdom so rich that none of the princesses wanted to say they failed the test.
One night, there was a terrible storm. The wind battered against the windows and the doors shuddered against the rain.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A servant looked at the shut doors. Was someone outside?
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The servant opened the door to see a young woman. She was drenched from head to toe and her clothes covered in mud. “Could I please come inside and take shelter from the storm?” She asked. “Just for the night and then I shall leave in the morn.”
At this time, the Prince came to the entrance and saw the poor, young woman. He felt pity for her and let her stay the night. As he looked at her from head to toe, he wondered if this woman was a Princess who had come to woo him.
After taking a warm bath and putting on clean pajamas, the woman was led to a room where she saw a bed of 20 mattresses and 20 blankets. She climbed up the ladder—for it is simply too difficult to climb on top without one—and laid down.
The next morning, the Prince asked the woman how she slept. The woman wanted to be polite but found it difficult. Finally, she said, “I must thank you for letting me rest here during the storm but that bed was most peculiar. I’m afraid I got little sleep.”
Upon hearing this, the Prince was very happy for he had found his real princess. He told her that he was happy to find a princess and that he wished to wed her. The Princess was surprised as she had never said that she was a princess and asked the Prince how he knew.
When he told her how he tested her with the pea, she was silent before she started to laugh. “What a fool!” She exclaimed and shook her head. She took the Prince to the room she had slept in before and told him to lie on the bed. The Prince listened and climbed up the ladder and laid down.
“Can you feel the pea?” She asked.
The Prince laid there but could not feel the pea. Was he not a real prince? When he did not answer, the Princess laughed again.
“Who could feel a pea under 20 mattresses and 20 blankets? I could not sleep because I was too scared I would fall down! What a foolish thing to think that anyone could feel a pea under that bed.”
The Prince climbed down from the bed and looked at the Princess. Oh, what a fool he had been! The Princess looked at the Prince and said, “I do not want to marry you but perhaps we could be friends. You are quite silly and you have made me laugh.”
And so the Prince and Princess became friends. The Prince apologized to the other Princesses and became an even better Prince than before.
After a long time of being friends, the Prince and Princess fell in love. At their wedding, the Princess gave the Prince a small, round, crystal Pea as a gift and he laughed. They put the crystal in the museum which you can’t see anymore for it has been stolen.
And there, that is a true story.