A prince travelled the world to find a real princess to be his bride, but none of them would quite do. One night during a massive storm a girl knocked on the door claiming to be a princess from down the road looking for shelter. The queen was sceptical so placed a pea under the mattress of the spare bed. Then she piled more and more mattresses onto the bed so that it was so high the girl needed a ladder to climb into bed. Only a real princess will feel the pea under that many mattresses thought the queen. The next morning the queen asked the girl how she had slept and she complained bitterly about a hard lump in the bed. The queen was delighted and presented the girl to the prince. This is a real princess, she said. The prince was delighted and the two got married and lived happily ever after.