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There was once a prince who wanted to marry a true princess. He traveled about, all throughout the world, looking to find her. The prince met many, many princesses throughout his travels, but he could never quite tell if they were true princesses.
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There was always something that did not seem quite right with the princesses he met. So he came home sad and alone, without the true princess he longed to find.
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One evening a terrible storm came to the castle. There was thunder and lightning, and the rain came pouring down. It was frightful! Then there was a knocking at the castle gate, and the Prince's father, the old King, went out to open it.
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A princess stood outside the gates, drenched from the storm. She was a mess. Water ran down from her hair, drenching her clothes, all the way to her shoes.
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The princess begged to be let in from the storm. "Can I please spend the night in your castle?" She asked the king. "I have nowhere to go in this miserable storm. I am a true princess who is in need of your kindness." The king led her inside to meet the queen.
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The queen looked at the soaking wet princess. "We will soon find out if she is indeed a true princess," thought the old Queen. She said nothing, though, and went to prepare a bed for the princess. The queen took all of the bedding off of the bed and placed a pea upon the mattress.
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Then she took twenty mattresses and laid them upon the pea, and then twenty thick blankets upon the mattresses.
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The Princess was shown to the bed-chamber. The old Queen showed her the towering bed and said she could sleep there for the night. The Princess slept on the very top of the mattresses and blankets all night long.
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In the morning when the Princess awoke, she was asked how she had slept. "Oh, miserably!" said the Princess. "I scarcely closed my eyes all night long. I lay upon something hard, so that I am black and blue all over. It is quite dreadful!"
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"She must be a true princess!" thought the old king, old queen and the prince. "Only a true princess could feel the pea through the twenty mattresses and the twenty thick blankets. No one but a true princess could be so delicate."
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The prince married the princess and they lived happily ever after. As for the pea... to this day it still lies in the castle's museum. That is, unless someone has carried it off...
