A long time ago, there was a prince of a country. When he grew old enough to marry, he decided¹ to find a princess who was going to be his queen. So he started to travel all around the world.

The prince visited many countries and searched for a beautiful and kind princess, but no princess seemed good enough to be his bride. "There is no great princess in this world." He was disappointed and went back to his country spiritlessly.

One day, there was a frightening night of thunder, lightning, and very severe rainstorms. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door of the castle. "Who is it in the middle of this stormy night?" The king went out his room and opened the door by himself curiously². A girl in shabby clothes was standing³ in front of the door. Even though she looked tired from the severe rainstorm and the strong winds, she was beautiful and looked clever.

She was soaking⁴ wet with rain. "I am a princess of your neighboring country, but I got lost. Could you please let me stay in your castle tonight." She asked him politely. The king was surprised to hear that the shabby girl was a princess, and he allowed her to stay in his castle out of pity.

But the queen thought the girl was lying. 'Is the girl with those shabby clothes a princess? I am sure she is not a princess, but let her stay here with us tonight for the moment.'

The queen thought to herself like this and went into a guest's room. She took all the sheets off the bed, and put a grain of a green pea on the bed. Then, she covered the bed with twenty layers of blankets and another twenty layers of soft bird feather blankets. The girl fell asleep in that bed.

The next morning, the queen asked the girl, "Did you sleep well last night?" Then, she answered, "I appreciate your kindness, but there was something under the blankets. It hurt me so much I could hardly sleep last night."

The queen was surprised at what she heard, and she thought that the girl must be a great princess. If the girl was so sensitive that she could not sleep well because of a green pea even under many blankets and soft bird feather blankets, she must be a noble princess. They found the noble princess accidentally⁵. The prince was happy when he heard the story.

The prince made the princess his wife. The green pea was displayed in a museum. If someone had not taken the pea away, maybe we could have seen the pea in the museum.