I know the interpretation 'stone soup' you use, however there are other parts of the world that know it in a different story, i'll tell it here.

When the english first attempted to colonize australia to Australia, an englishman noticed a native 'bush turkey' was not regularly eaten by the local native aboriginals. The englishman had tried to cook and eat them, but it ended up anything but tastey.

He asked one of the tribal elders the secret to eating them, the elder responded.

"You put a stone into the pot, you bring it to boil When its boiling you throw in the plucked bush turkey, you eat it when the stone is soft."

The lesson I take from this is "sometimes things are just going to be bad, you just gotta accept that and move on".