Once upon a time, there was a prince who lived in a wealthy kingdom. When he had reached the proper age, his mother, the queen, decided the time was right for her son to find a bride. The prince, however, was determined not to marry just any girl, but that his future wife should be a "real" princess. So he traveled the world and searched in all the kingdoms and met with all the princesses, but he still wasn't satisfied.
One evening, there brewed a terrible storm, with thunder, lightning, and rain. It was really frightful! In the midst of it all came a knock at the town gate. The old king went to open it.
Who should be standing outside but a young lass, and what a sight she was in all that rain and wind. Water streamed from her hair down her clothes into her shoes, and ran out at the heels. Yet she claimed to be a real Princess.
Although no one believed her, she was invited in to stay for the night. The queen decided to test the young girl's claim of nobility—without saying a word, the queen went to the bedroom, stripped back the bedclothes, and put a single pea in the bottom of the bed. The queen then took 20 mattresses and stacked them on top of the pea, and took 20 eiderdown feather beds and piled them on the mattresses. Up on top of all these the princess was to spend the night.
The next morning when the girl woke up, the queen asked how she slept.
"Oh, very poorly!" she said. "I scarcely closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying on something hard, and now I am black and blue all over my body. It's horrible!"
There was no question about it. They could see she was a real princess, since she had felt one pea all the way through 20 mattresses and 20 more feather beds. Nobody but a princess could be so delicate. So the prince made haste to marry her, because he knew he had found a real princess. As for the pea, it was placed in a museum where it still can be seen.
