History Main / StoneSoup

Named for the classic folk tale in which [[TricksterMentor a strange wanderer]] breezes into town and offers everyone a free bowl of his remarkable Stone Soup (made by putting his soupstone -- [[EatDirtCheap a seemingly ordinary rock]] -- into a pot of water and boiling it). The suspicious villagers have hidden their food, but the stranger slowly persuades them to add ingredients to the pot, a little at a time, until (magically!) the simple stone has 'generated' a wonderful soup with potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, beef, turnips, parsley, salt, pepper, tomatoes, etc.

This story tends to be played for AnAesop, but the moral varies depending on how the teller wants to spin the tale. In idealistic versions, the villagers realize that they've been tricked into cooperating, but the result was a far better meal than they would have otherwise had. In ([[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism far more cynical]]) versions, the stranger is playing a well-rehearsed [[ConMan Con Game]]: the villagers don't realize they've been deceived and spend all their money to buy the stranger's magical soup stone. In this case, the Aesop is more like "If it sounds TooGoodToBeTrue, it probably is."

* Used in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'', as Jack begins rocking the boat, pretending to see something. The others follow, at first out of curiosity, but eventually they catch on.

%% Please see thread to discuss a new image.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stonesoup.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[BlatantLies Ingredients: Water, and one Stone.]]]]

Named for the classic folk tale in which [[TricksterMentor a strange wanderer]] breezes into town and offers everyone a free bowl of his remarkable stone soup (made by putting his soupstone -- [[EatDirtCheap a seemingly ordinary rock]] -- into a pot of water and boiling it). The suspicious villagers have hidden their food, but the stranger slowly persuades them to add it to the pot, a little at a time, until at last they have contributed all the potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, beef, turnips, parsley, salt, pepper, tomatoes, and bread to make a real meal.

This story tends to be played for AnAesop, but the moral varies depending on how the teller wants to spin the tale. In one version, the villagers realize that cooperation is better than competition and suspicion; they have enough food among them to feed everyone a good meal, if they share it. In another ([[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism far more cynical]]) version, the stranger is playing a well-rehearsed [[ConMan Con Game]]: blinded by the promise of "free" food, the villagers never catch on and ultimately spend all their money to buy the stranger's magical soup stone, becoming victims of their own greed. In this case, the Aesop is more like "If it sounds TooGoodToBeTrue, it probably is."

Compare FencePainting and BavarianFireDrill. Contrast with TooManyCooksSpoilTheSoup.

Compare FencePainting and BavarianFireDrill. Contrast with TooManyCooksSpoilTheSoup. When this approach is taken to story-telling, it tends to result in the FantasyKitchenSink.

Named for the classic folk tale in which [[TricksterMentor a strange wanderer]] breezes into town and offers everyone a free bowl of his remarkable stone soup (made by putting his soupstone -- a seemingly ordinary rock -- into a pot of water and boiling it). The suspicious villagers have hidden their food, but the stranger slowly persuades them to add it to the pot, a little at a time, until at last they have contributed all the potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, beef, turnips, parsley, salt, pepper, tomatoes, and bread to make a real meal.

This story tends to be played for AnAesop, but the moral varies depending on how the teller wants to spin the tale. In one version, the villagers realize that cooperation is better than competition and suspicion; they have enough food among them to feed everyone a good meal, if they share it. In another (far more cynical) version, the stranger is playing a well-rehearsed [[ConMan Con Game]]: blinded by the promise of "free" food, the villagers never catch on and ultimately spend all their money to buy the stranger's magical soup stone, becoming victims of their own greed. In this case, the Aesop is more like "If it sounds TooGoodToBeTrue, it probably is."

This story tends to be played for AnAesop, but the moral varies depending on how the teller wants to spin the tale. In one version, the villagers realize that cooperation is better than competition and suspicion; they have enough food among them to feed everyone a good meal, if they share it. In another version (far more cynical), the stranger is playing a well-rehearsed [[ConMan Con Game]]: blinded by the promise of "free" food, the villagers never catch on and ultimately spend all their money to buy the stranger's magical soup stone, becoming victims of their own greed. In this case, the Aesop is more like "If it sounds TooGoodToBeTrue, it probably is."

** Soup stones are also an alchemical item in ''ComicBook/DungeonsAndDragons'', even coming in different flavours.

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* The earliest known printed version of the folk tale was published in 1720, one year after the death of its author, French journalist Madame de Noyer. Her version is set in Normandy, with two Jesuit priests as the benevolent tricksters and a house full of children rather than adult villagers.

** Another Russian variant is the traveller uses a spare button to make "button borscht".

This story tends to be played for AnAesop, but the moral varies depending on how the teller wants to spin the tale. In one version, the villagers realize that cooperation is better than competition and suspicion; they have enough food among them to feed everyone a good meal, if they share it. In another version (far more cynical), the stranger is playing a well-rehearsed Con Game: blinded by the promise of "free" food, the villagers never catch on and ultimately spend all their money to buy the stranger's magical soup stone, becoming victims of their own greed. In this case, the Aesop is more like "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

* The "get rid of the idiots" version also occurs in the backstory of ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' in ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse''; the Golgafrinchan homeworld is threatened by a meteor, so they put all the thinkers on one ship, the doers on another, and the middlemen like hair stylists and phone cleaners on a third...and then send the third away, having made up the meteor story in order to "clear the chaff" from their society. [[spoiler:The rest of the Golgafrinchans die off from a disease contracted from a dirty telephone, while the "useless" members of their civilization land on [[EarthAllAlong an insignificant blue planet]] and use their advanced technology to build a [[{{Atlantis}} floating city]], which turns out to be a terrible idea.]]

Compare FencePainting and BavarianFireDrill. Contrast with TooManyCooksSpoilTheSoup.

* Used in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd', as Jack begins rocking the boat, pretending to see something. The others follow, at first out of curiosity, but eventually they catch on.

* Used in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbean: At World's End'', as Jack begins rocking the boat, pretending to see something. The others follow, at first out of curiosity, but eventually they catch on.

* A rumor of dubious veracity is that during TheGreatDepression, some people ate actual stone soup. On those rare few days they could afford the ingredients for soup, they'd place a porous rock at the bottom of the pot which, overnight, would absorb some of the flavor. Later, when what little money there was inevitably ran out and there was nothing else, they'd place the rock inside boiling water, and the released flavor would allow them to stave off hunger for just a tiny little while longer by at least tricking their own bodies into believing they were eating (extremely thin) soup.

* A WaltDisney comic of uncertain vintage once played with this trope by having Gyro Gearloose attempt to make stone soup using "concentrated stone juice".

* In the ArchieComics story "Rock On!" (no longer online?), Jughead makes a "rock hamburger" to lure people away from Reggie's barbecue.
* Referenced and subverted in ''{{Fables}}''. When Jack tries to sell soup stones. Snow White mentions she kept hers, which implies that here, Soup Stones are actually magical.
** Soup stones are also an alchemical item in ''DungeonsAndDragons'', even coming in different flavours.

* Used in ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean: At World's End'', as Jack begins rocking the boat, pretending to see something. The others follow, at first out of curiosity, but eventually they catch on.

* The original folk tale was retold on JimHenson's ''Series/TheStoryteller''. However, the usual {{Aesop}} is interestingly [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] when [[spoiler: the cook figures out he's been had and angrily demands that the stone-soup maker be boiled alive. His attempts to avoid punishment make up the rest of the episode]].

Named for the classic folk tale in which [[TricksterMentor a strange wanderer]] breezes into town and offers everyone a free bowl of his remarkable stone soup (made by putting his soupstone -- a seemingly ordinary rock -- into a pot of water and boiling it). The suspicious villagers have hidden their food, but the stranger slowly persuades them to part with some of it, a little at a time, until at last they have contributed all the potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, beef, turnips, parsley, salt, pepper, tomatoes, and bread to make a real meal.

This story tends to be played for AnAesop, but the moral varies depending on how the teller wants to spin the tale. In one version, the villagers who cooperate -- even if it is simply out of curiosity and hungry greed -- learn that they have enough food among them to feed everyone a good meal. In another version (far more cynical), the stranger plays a classic Con Game: blinded by the promise of "free" food, the villagers never catch on and are eventually caught by their own greed; giving the stranger all the money they have left to buy his magical soup stone and sending him on to bamboozle the next town. In this case, the Aesop is more like "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."