Peter Peter lives in a big palace where his parents are the caretakers. The palace is old and no one lives there now. Peter likes to explore the rooms. They are full of interesting and precious things old paintings, statues, carpets, and furniture.

One day, Peter notices something strange about the big painting in the dining room. Usually, this colorful painting shows one of the old kings sitting on the throne with a crown on his head and a long scepter in his hand. The queen and the royal children - the prince and the princess - are next to him. But today, the king's place in the painting is empty: he is missing!

Peter is surprised and looks carefully at the painting again. He can see the crown and scepter, but not the king. Also, the scepter is leaning dangerously over the princess's head. Peter knows he must find the king at once!

He goes through all of the rooms in the palace. He looks behind doors and curtains. Finally, he comes to the royal bathroom. He hears singing and knocks on the door. "Who is it?" says the king. "Please be quiet! I'm enjoying a hot bath!" Peter is astonished. When the king comes out, he says to him, "I spend years sitting in that painting and no one ever comes to wash the dust off me. Dust damages the painting, so I simply had to have a bath."

Peter understands but explains to the king that his scepter is about to fall on the princess. "Thank you, my boy," the king says. "I will hurry back. But in the future, please clean the paintings in the palace. Otherwise, they'll be damaged forever!" and he runs back to the painting to pick up the scepter.

Peter now cleans all the paintings in the palace so that they aren't damaged - and so that no one has to leave their painting to have a good bath!