The Stone Soup StoryOnce upon a time, there lived a village. When a hungry traveller passed by the village, he asked for food at every home. As the villagers barely had enough food for themselves, he was rejected repeatedly.
The traveller went to a stream and filled a pot with water, dropped a large stone in it, and placed it over a fire in the village square.This piqued the interest of a man who was at the village square. He stopped and looked at the boiling pot. "What are you making?" he asked. "I’m making a pot of stone soup for all of us to share! It's not quite perfect yet. Needs a little salt for seasoning." As it turned out, the passer-by had some salt in a small bag in his coat pocket. He poured some of the salt into the stone soup. Then a farmer’s wife came to the village square, carrying a bulky sack of potatoes. "What's cooking?" she sang out. “I’m making a pot of stone soup for all of us to share! Oh, this soup will be marvelous! If only I had some potatoes, then it would be really delicious!” The farmer's wife was glad to pitch in some of her potatoes. Silently, the three strangers watched the pot boil. A crowd began to gather. And so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was indeed a delicious soup for everyone in the village to share. When the soup was done, the entire village, including the traveller, all got to enjoy a scrumptious bowl of the stone soup. It was not the stone, but the villagers that had performed the magic. |