Long ago, in a far away land, a man wandered into a village. The young man had traveled a long way and was very
hungry, tired and cold but he had no place to rest, nor did he have any money to buy food.
So he stopped at the first house he came to and knocked on the door, "Please", said the man, "I have traveled
a long way, and am very hungry... Have you any food?" The woman opened the door, saw the young man standing
there and cried,
"Go away!" and slammed the door in his face. The man knocked on another door, and then another - each meeting
the same fate.. Eventually, he had knocked on all the doors, but no one offered him any food, not even a crust of bread.
So he went to the center of town, gathered up some twigs he had found, and started a fire in which to warm himself.
He then pulled out a large cooking pot from his bag, filled the pot with water from a nearby stream, and placed the pot
on the fire. When he saw the water beginning to boil, he carefully placed a large stone, that he had been carrying in
his bag, in the boiling water. He began stirring the pot with a wooden spoon.
Soon, the people of the village became very curious. One by one, they all came out of their houses and approached
the man that had arrived at their village. As they stood there watching the man, they saw him dip the spoon into the pot, take a taste of what appeared to be just water, and said, "Mmmm...this is good." "What have you got there
young man?" asked one of the villagers? "You have no food in there." The young man looked up at them, smiled and replied..... "It is really quite good." The villagers looked around at one another, each one shaking their head.
The man dipped his spoon into the water again, taking another taste.
"If only I had an onion" he said ..."might one of you have an onion you could spare?" "I have an onion," said a
young girl, and she ran off to her house to get the onion. When she returned, she handed the man the onion,
the man thanked her and placed the onion in the pot. He stirred the pot and tasted again.."Delicious" said the
man.
"I wonder what else I might put in this soup. Have any of you a potato or some carrots you could spare?"
By this time, the villagers did not know what to think, but one by one the villagers went back to their houses and
brought out the food the man had asked them for. Again, the man thanked each villager for the food. He placed the
food in the pot,stirred, tasted the soup, and said "Heavenly", He again wondered, aloud, what else he might put into
the soup. One villager, quickly ran into his house and brought back some beef he was going to cook for dinner that night.He handed the beef to the young man, and the man put the beef into the water and stirred. "Fantastic",
exclaimed the man.
By this time, the sun had gone down, and he looked around at the villagers and said "you have all been so gracious
sharing with me the food that you have, will you please join me, I am sure there is plenty of soup here for all of us."
The villagers ran back very excited, went into their houses, got some bowls, spoons, and blankets, and returned.
They spread out their blankets, sat down and had a wonderful feast that they all helped create. (to be continued...)
*(The original story was written by Debra Hess and published in Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles, magazine '89)
