Once upon a time, there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess.
When the news spread, many people came to apply.
On that day, more than twenty girls arrived.
The prince, along with his father and mother, was perplexed because it was impossible to have so many princesses in the kingdom, and most of them must be impostors.
The queen came up with a solution. She said, “Today, it’s raining heavily. You all can stay here for dinner and sleep overnight. You can leave tomorrow.”
The queen instructed to prepare beds for each girl, placing a pea on each bed, followed by twenty mattresses on top, and then twenty eiderdown quilts on top of the mattresses.
The prince didn’t know what the queen had in mind, but she assured him that she had a way to distinguish the true princess without revealing any further details.
As night fell, another girl arrived.
She was completely soaked from the rain and looked miserable.
However, she claimed to be a princess.
Everyone burst into laughter.
The queen instructed to place a pea on her bed as well, followed by twenty mattresses and then twenty eiderdown quilts.
The queen said, “Today, everyone is tired. Let’s go to sleep early.”
So, the girls went back to their rooms to sleep.
Early the next morning, the girls woke up and went to see the queen and the prince.
The queen asked, “Did you sleep well last night? Did you feel uncomfortable?”
The girls all replied, “It was so comfortable! With twenty mattresses and twenty eiderdown quilts, how could it not be comfortable? I’ve never slept on such a soft bed in my entire life!”
Only the girl who arrived latest yesterday, drenched in rain, said, “It was so uncomfortable! I couldn’t sleep well the whole night. There was something hard underneath, like a bean, pressing against my waist and back!”
The queen said, “It’s you! You are the real princess!”
The prince quickly asked how she could determine that she was the true princess.
The queen replied, “There were twenty mattresses and twenty eiderdown quilts on top of the pea, and she could feel it. Only a real princess could have such delicate skin to sense it!”
As a result, the prince and the princess held a grand wedding.
Because of this incident, everyone referred to this princess as the Pea Princess.
As for the pea, it was placed in a museum, and perhaps you can still see it if you visit the museum!
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