Once upon a time, there was a prince who wanted to marry a real princess. He traveled all over the world to find one but returned home disappointed. There were plenty of princesses, but he couldn’t be sure if they were real princesses because something always seemed not quite right about them.

One stormy night, there was a knock at the castle door. The old king went to open it. Outside stood a young woman, drenched by the rain and shivering from the cold. She claimed to be a princess and asked for shelter for the night.

The queen, being a wise woman, decided to test if the girl was a real princess. She went to the guest bedroom, removed all the bedding from the bedstead, and placed a single pea on the bed frame. Then she had twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds placed on top of the pea.

The next morning, the queen asked the princess how she had slept. “Oh, terribly!” said the princess. “I hardly closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed. I was lying on something so hard that I am black and blue all over.”

The queen was delighted. Only a real princess would have such delicate skin to feel a pea through twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds.

The prince, overjoyed, married the princess, for now he knew he had found a real princess. The pea was put in the royal museum, where it may still be seen to this day, unless someone has taken it.

And so, the prince and the real princess lived happily ever after.