Hungry soldiers come into a village, hungry and tired. But the villagers refuse to help them. They fear the soldiers will plunder and harass the people. They are scared, thus nobody wants to give them any food. At one point a soldier brings up an idea💡… “Why don’t we make stone soup?
The soldiers knock on the doors and asks: “Excuse me, do you have a cauldron and some firewood? We would like to make stone soup!” The villager, thinking there is no risk to her says, “Soup from stones? This I’ve got to see”. She gives them them the cauldron and the firewood. Other soldiers get water.
The story starts to spread… “The soldiers are making soup from stones! This we have to see!” Soon soldiers and villagers are standing around the fire.
“I had no idea you can make soup from stones” says one villager.
“Sure can” replies the soldier. And the soldier patiently waits for the stones to cook…
Eventually, tired of standing around, another villager asks, “Can I help?”
“Perhaps”, says a soldier. “If you had a few potatoes, the soup would be even better”.
The villager quickly gets them and adds them to the soup.
Another person asks, “How can I help?” “Well if you had some carrots that would make it even better”, replies the soldier. So the villager contributes some carrots.
Soon others are adding poultry, parsley, garlic and leeks. After a while one of the soldiers calls out, “IT’S DONE!” And shares the soup with everyone.
The villagers are heard saying… “Soup from stones! It tastes fantastic. I had no idea!”
Your big bold crazy ideas are the stones! What makes your stone soup work, is passion. People love passion.
Note: The first published version by Madame de Noyer, France 1720
