| While working a live benefit auction this week, a | | | | the traveler shares it with all of the villagers. Everyone |
| nonprofit organization was selling a book that was | | | | contributed such a small amount but the combined |
| signed by the author. Since the value of the book was | | | | effort increased the value of the meal. |
| insignificant and the author was unknown, it was not | | | | With the book in my hand, I had the stone for my |
| appropriate for a live auction. It was just a book. | | | | "stone soup". I collected the initial bids, and when the |
| However, the organization requested that I sell it | | | | expected lull came, I added more ingredients. I tapped |
| anyway. | | | | into the resources I knew were in the room. The |
| As the book was brought to the podium, I recalled | | | | author of the book was in the audience and offered |
| another book I had read in school as a child called | | | | the winning bidder a day at his home in England; the |
| "Stone Soup". It is an old fairy tale about travelers who | | | | bids increased. Then another guest in the audience |
| come to a village with only a pot. They are hungry and | | | | included a tour of his work at the Lincoln Cathedral; the |
| need a place to stay but the village is poor and no one | | | | bids climbed higher. Another guest in the audience |
| wants to share the small amount of food they have | | | | worked at the Edinburgh Castle and added a tour also; |
| with the travelers. Without a place to stay, the | | | | the bids soared. Suddenly, our soup was fit for a king. It |
| travelers put a stone in their pot, fill it with water, and | | | | was the highest sold item at the charity auction that |
| start to heat it over a fire in the village square. One of | | | | day. |
| the villagers becomes curious and comes to enquire | | | | The small things that were offered by donors were |
| about the food in the pot. The travelers tell him that | | | | easy for them to give but held great value to the |
| they are making "stone soup" which will be delicious | | | | bidders and ultimately to the whole nonprofit |
| except for an ingredient that they are missing. The | | | | organization that reaped the revenues. The items you |
| villager is willing to share a small amount of garnish if it | | | | collect from donors may seem of little worth. Adding |
| will help to make a tasty soup. Another villager does | | | | items to make a package will increase the value. |
| the same, sharing a pinch of seasoning, and then | | | | Don't underestimate the value of a professional benefit |
| another with a carrot or two, and so on until the soup | | | | auctioneer. He can make "stone soup" out of a plain |
| truly becomes a meal fit for a king. When it is done, | | | | old book. |