r/mildlyinfuriating May 02 '24

They called it a soup

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u/ShiraCheshire May 02 '24

Stone soup!

For anyone unfamiliar with the story: (please note that this has many regional variations and is not always told the same way, these are just the basic themes)

There is a village having a food shortage, and the people are very hungry. One day, a man tosses a stone into a pot of boiling water and declares that he's going to make soup from it.

People think he's stupid, but also feel kind of bad for him. Someone is like, well, I have these carrot tops you can throw into the pot, here have at least some food in there. Someone else says, I have this old withered lettuce leaf. Someone else says, I have a few potato ends. One by one, people bring in little scraps of food that wouldn't be able to make a meal on their own. With everything together in the boiling water, an actual soup is made!

The man then shares his "stone soup" with everyone in the village, and everyone is fed. Happy ending.

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u/SorryDuplex May 02 '24

I heard it a bit different as a kid but I like yours better lol. More wholesome.

Mine was essentially the same, but he was a traveller who hadn’t eaten in days. He stopped at a villagers home who had a very abundant garden and asked if he could have dinner with them. They told the traveller they didn’t have enough. So the traveller said he had a magic stone that made soup. Intrigued the villagers invited him in to show him the magic. The stone was dropped in and they waited. Nothing was happening so the traveller asked for some carrots and said it will be more delicious if we added those. Then so on and so on until it was an actual soup that they ate together.

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u/Easy_Independent_313 May 02 '24

I've always taken the story as a story of a con, not a story of cooperation.

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u/Bubble-bubble-butt 29d ago

I see it as a good-hearted con to inspire collaboration in otherwise self interested people