The Princess and the Pea Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, there lived a prince who dreamed of marrying a true princess. In his mind, his future wife had to be of noble birth. So, the prince set out on a journey across the world in search of a bride worthy of being called a "true princess." However, he could not find the girl of his dreams. Of course, he encountered many beautiful princesses, each more stunning than the last. Yet, he did not consider any of them to be a true princess.

Finally, after searching far and wide and returning home exhausted without finding what he wanted, he felt deeply saddened. One evening, as night fell, the weather suddenly changed. It was as if dragons were fighting in the sky, with lightning flashing, thunder rumbling, and rain pouring down in buckets.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the palace gate. When the king himself went to open it, he found a girl standing there. She was soaked to the skin. Water was streaming from her hair and clothes, pouring into her shoes and spilling out from the tips. My God, what a sight to behold! What a pity! Yet the girl insisted that she was a "true princess."

At that moment, the queen also came over. After listening to the girl, she thought to herself, "We will soon see whether your words are true or false!" and said:

 – "Alright! Don’t stand in the rain, my dear. Come inside!" – and invited her in.

Then the queen examined the girl from head to toe and without saying a word, went into the bedroom. There, she took all the bedding from the wooden bed and placed a pea underneath the mattress. Then, she put twenty thick mattresses and twenty feather quilts on top of it.

At night, the guest princess was made to sleep in that room. The next morning, the prince and his parents woke up. Everyone gathered at the breakfast table. After a while, the guest girl came down. At that moment, they asked her how she had slept. She replied:

 – "Don’t ask! I couldn’t sleep at all last night. God knows what happened on my bed! I don’t know what it was, but I slept on something very hard, and now my whole body is bruised! What a disgrace! I have no words!" – she said. It was then that everyone realized she was indeed a true princess: despite sleeping on forty mattresses, the pea had pressed into her hip, preventing her from sleeping! Such sensitivity and delicacy are qualities that belong only to a true princess of noble birth! Thus, the prince got what he wanted and married the true princess he had always dreamed of. As for the pea, it was sent to a museum for safekeeping. They say that if no one has stolen it, the pea still lies there to this day!