If Cinderella had not lost her shoe that night, she would have left without looking back. Despite all the efforts of the prince to find the beautiful girl, he wouldn't have found her. Why? The answer is simple. Without the shoe Cinderella lost in the movie, he can't find her. Sure, he can ask every girl of the village if it's them, but what tells him they won't lie? I mean, which girl wouldn't lie if it meant having a chance with the prince? Even if Cinderella said it was her, the rich man would probably not recognize her in the maid clothes she's always wearing. Perhaps the prince would be expecting a middle class woman, even a wealthy woman, because of the rather expensive looking dress the mystery girl wore at his ball. Or he would have recognized her, but since she's does not appear rich at all and not as well dressed as she was at the ball, he would have dropped the matter and tried to find another woman, because it's not all stories that finish like fairytales.