When an elderly stranger approached a community, the residents rushed to their houses, closing their doors and windows behind them.
The stranger inquired, "Why are you all so scared?" with a kind grin.
"There isn't a bite to eat anywhere in the entire hamlet," he was informed. The situation is dire for us, and our children are famished. It's best to keep pushing forwards."
"Oh, in that case, let me to prepare some stone soup for you to enjoy," he replied, placing a stone in a pot filled with water on the community campfire and cooking it over the fire.
The majority of the locals had come out of their homes after hearing rumours of meals being prepared. As the stranger took a smell of the "broth" and licked his lips in anticipation, their hunger began to triumph over their terror.
He thought to himself, fairly loudly, "I do enjoy a nice stone soup," the stranger remarked to himself. Then there's the stone soup with cabbage, which is unbeatable.
In the distance, an uneasy local arrived, clutching a little cabbage that had been found in its hiding spot and added it to the boiling pot.
"Wonderful!!" said a stranger on the street. "You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a little salt meat thrown in for good measure, and it was fit for a king," says the author.
The butcher in the hamlet was successful in locating some salt beef... And so it continued, with more veggies being added as time went on, until there was a truly magnificent feast for everyone in the community to enjoy.
The stranger refused to sell the magic stone, despite the fact that the Elder offered him a substantial sum of money in exchange for it.
As he was walking away, the stranger came upon a bunch of village youngsters who were standing besides the road. It was a whisper that he used to hand the stone on to the smallest kid, explaining that "it was not the stone, but the villagers who had performed the miracle."
The story's moral may be summarised as follows:
When you think outside the box and don't confine yourself to established methods of thinking, it is always feasible to overcome a difficult problem.
Don't stop because others found an excuse not to make difference
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