Stone Soup
Axe Soup · Button Soup · Nail Soup
A folk story in which hungry strangers convince the people of a town to each share a small amount of their food in order to make a meal that everyone enjoys (and whereby the inedible stone can be removed when the neighboring ingredients are sufficient to make an actual soup), and exists as a moral regarding the value of sharing.
Origin
The European folk tale is classified as type 1548 in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther folktale system. The earliest written version appeared in French journalist Madame de Noyer's 1720 publication Soupe au Caillou, though oral traditions likely predate this. German writer Johann Peter Hebel wrote "Der schlaue Pilgrim" ("The Cunning Pilgrim") in 1811, featuring a wily pilgrim tricking a hostess into enriching pebble soup. Variations across Europe replace the stone with other inedible objects: axe, button, nail, bolt, or wood soup.