It is told that one day, Juha was traveling. During his journey, a severe storm blew. Juha feared that harm might befall him and began looking around for shelter. Juha’s eyes fell on a rural house at a distance from him, so he headed to that house and knocked on its door, asking: Is anyone here?!
The rural house: The owner of the house opened the door for Juha and asked him what he wanted. Juha said to him: A storm has blown, and I want to take shelter in your house until the storm subsides. The owner of the house said to him: Welcome. The owner of the house lived with his wife in this house, but he was very miserly. He would not give a loaf of bread or a drop of water to a needy person.
Dinner time: When dinner time came, the owner left Juha sitting alone and took his wife to another room. They dined together and were satisfied. After a while, they returned to Juha again to talk to him. During this time, Juha felt hunger, and he did not have anything to eat. He wanted to ask for some food, but he was shy, so he remained silent in pain. Then hunger intensified upon him, and he could not bear patience. He wanted to make them feel his need for food without asking for anything. He began thinking of a means.
Attempting to obtain food: So Juha said to them: A person feels hunger in winter faster than he feels it in summer. But they ignored his intent. The miserly owner of the house said to him: Yes, this is true, but often the feeling of hunger is false, and it is better for a person to be hungry than to eat when he is not in need of food. Juha understood from this phrase that he had no hope of obtaining anything from food in this house. Juha feared that hunger would harm him, so he said to himself: There must be another means.
A new trick: So Juha said to the miserly owner of the house and his wife, asking: Have you ever drunk stone soup? The man and his wife said in one voice: Stone soup? We have never heard in any day of any type of soup called stone soup before today! Juha said: It is delicious in taste. Whoever tastes it once will not find soup more delicious than it afterward.
The wife’s curiosity: The miser man’s wife longed to know this soup and said: How is this soup made? Juha said to her: I will not be able to describe it well, but I can make it for you if you want now? She said to him: Yes, I want you to make it for us now. Juha said to her: Then bring me a pot and some stones so I can make it for you. The woman brought him the pot and some pieces of stones.
Juha’s intelligence: Juha took the stones and washed them with water until they became completely clean. Then he put them in the pot, filled the pot with water, and placed it on the fire. When the water was about to boil, he said to her: Now we must put onions in the pot. She brought him onions and put them in the pot. Then he said: Now we put meat. She brought him meat and put it in the pot.
Then he said: Now we put some potatoes. She brought him potatoes and put them in the pot as well. Then Juha left the pot on the fire until the meat, onions, and potatoes were cooked. The miserly man and his wife were watching Juha to see how he made that stone soup.
Finally, food: When Juha knew that everything in the pot was cooked, he said to them: Where are the bowls and spoons? When the woman brought the bowls, Juha filled a bowl for himself with soup, meat, potatoes, and onions, saying to them: Take what remains in the pot and taste it, for it is stone soup, unparalleled in the pleasure of taste. There was nothing in the pot at that time except the stones.
From the anecdotes of Juha.