Over the weekend I read Peter Diamandis’s new book Bold, a primer on bold thinking and entrepreneurship, where he shares this short story of the Stone Soup.
In a medieval village, a farmer notices three starving soldiers approaching town and warns his neighbors to hide their food, for fear of losing all of it. The soldiers go door to door, denied food by everyone they ask. Suddenly, one of the soldiers gets an idea.
He knocks on a door, asking the villager if he and his friends could use her cauldron and firewood to make stone soup. The idea of soup made from stones is so strange and interesting that she lets the men into her home. One of the soldiers fetches some water from a well, along with some regular stones.
As the water begins to boil around the rocks, news spreads throughout the town that the soldiers they saw earlier were making soup made from stones. A group of intrigued villagers arrives at the woman’s home to watch the soup bubble. After some time passes, an impatient onlooker asks the soldiers if he can help.
Some potatoes might actually add some flavor, a soldier suggests, and the villager goes to retrieve some potatoes. Not wanting to be left out, another villager asks if she can add something. A couple of carrots could work, a soldier says.
This continues, and soon the soup also contains poultry, barley, garlic, and leeks. One of the soldiers finally announces that the soup is done and shares the soup with everyone gathered.
The villagers are delighted at how delicious the soup tastes — who would have guessed that soup made from stones could come out so good?
This story is an exerpt from Bold by Peter Diamandis and Steve Kottler.
