O conto da Cinderela mudou muito nos últimos séculos:
Finally, the glass slipper is peculiar to Perrault's telling of the story, which is one of the world's best-known and most widely distributed folktales. In most versions, Cinderella is helped by her dead mother, who reappears as a domestic animal, typically a cow or goat, rather than her fairy godmother; often, she makes three visits to a ball, festival, or church; and her true identity is revealed by a ring that will not fit anyone's finger but hers. The story probably is of Oriental origin. In the oldest known version, from China in the ninth century, the heroine loses a slipper, as it happens, but it is of gold. The glass slipper, then, along with the use of the witching hour of midnight as the moment at which the heroine's finery will disappear, seems to be one of Perrault's own contributions to the Cinderella story.
~ snopes
E na wikipedia:
They tell the fabulous story that, when she was bathing, an eagle snatched one of her sandals from her maid and carried it to Memphis. While the king was administering justice in the open air, the eagle, when it arrived above his head, flung the sandal into his lap. The king, having been stirred both by the beautiful shape of the sandal and by the strangeness of the occurrence, sent men in all directions into the country in quest of the woman who wore the sandal. When she was found in the city of Naucratis, she was brought up to Memphis and became the wife of the king.
Além disso:
In 1893, Marian Roalfe Cox, commissioned by the Folklore Society of Britain, produced Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-Five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin and, Cap o'Rushes, Abstracted and Tabulated with a Discussion of Medieval Analogues and Notes.
~wikipedia
Parece, porém, que o primeiro uso de pantufas de vidro é por Perrault em 1697:
One of the most popular versions of Cinderella was written by Charles Perrault in 1697. The popularity of his tale was due to his additions to the story, including the pumpkin, the fairy-godmother and the introduction of glass slippers
Como Snopes lhe dirá, ele artificialmente (ao contrário de por meio de erro de tradução) acrescentou os chinelos de vidro . Antes disso, outros itens foram perdidos, roubados ou deixados para trás. Às vezes, nada foi deixado para trás.
Então universo , em geral, não há chinelo de vidro sendo deixado para trás. E, portanto, não há razão para que ele retorne ao seu estado usual, de vidro.
Se você está se referindo apenas à Disney / Perrault, há uma sugestão sutil de que a fada madrinha guardava o vidro do chinelo para que o príncipe e a Cinderela pudessem se reunir:
He had Cinderella sit down, and, putting the slipper to her foot, he found that it went on very easily, fitting her as if it had been made of wax. Her two sisters were greatly astonished, but then even more so, when Cinderella pulled out of her pocket the other slipper, and put it on her other foot. Then in came her godmother and touched her wand to Cinderella's clothes, making them richer and more magnificent than any of those she had worn before.
~Perrault
Se a madrinha já estivesse por perto, e apenas transformasse suas roupas, alguém poderia argumentar que o retorno à mundanidade à meia-noite era um limite artificial colocado na Cinderela pela madrinha. Não havia fraqueza inerente de sua magia, e assim ela poderia ter excluído os chinelos apenas para enganar Cinderela com o príncipe.