Stone soup

The fable of the stone soup is about co-operation amid scarcity.

Related Topics:
Fable - Co-operation - Scarcity

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According to the story, some travellers come to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty pot. Upon their arrival the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the travellers. The travellers fill the pot with water and a large stone, and place it over a fire in the village square. Asked what they're doing, they reply that they are making "stone soup", and request a bit of garnish to improve the flavor. Additional villagers come by, each adding more ingredients. Finally, a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by all.

Related Topics:
Village - Soup

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This fable can be thought of as "The Emperor's New Clothes" in reverse, where nothing is revealed to be something, after all. The original stone was only a pretext to start the villagers sharing in a way that they would not have considered without the catalyst of the "stone soup" that they thought they were improving.

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The free Fractint software was written by the "Stone Soup Group", named after this fable. Copyleft endeavours, including the GNU project and Wikipedia, can also be regarded as embodying the stone soup principle.

Related Topics:
Free - Fractint - Stone Soup Group - Copyleft - GNU - Wikipedia

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According to Portuguese tradition, the events described in the "stone soup" tale took place around Almeirim, Portugal. To this day, there's hardly a restaurant in Almeirim which doesn't serve stone soup ("sopa de pedra").

Related Topics:
Almeirim - Portugal

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An episode of Land of the Lost is titled "Stone Soup", and features a storyline making use of this fable.

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An affiliation of Cooperative Houses in Chicago, founded in 1997, has the name Stone Soup. The official name is Stone Soup Cooperative for Joy and Justice.

Related Topics:
Cooperative - Stone Soup Cooperative for Joy and Justice

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