The Wish and Miracle Stones

I was tasked to collect two different, but related, artifacts- a wish stone, and a miracle stone.

Of course, these artifacts do not exist in reality, which is why I can discuss it with you.

On the surface, these items work in the same way: while grasping the stone in your hands, you state your desire, and it is fulfilled. Then it vanishes from your possession.

The difference between a wish stone and a miracle stone is the difference between a wish and a miracle.

A wish is fundamentally a strong desire for something to happen; that something is not impossible, but merely difficult or unlikely to occur.

A miracle is an impossibility that has manifested itself.

A wish is a wish, and a miracle is a miracle. It is not possible to perform a miracle, even with the power of a wish stone.

Similarly, a miracle stone cannot grant any wish.

Of course, from the perspective of us humans, a miracle stone is far more powerful than a wish stone, and should thus be able to duplicate the functions of a wish stone.

A saw is far more capable of cutting wood than a knife, but just try carving wood with a saw.

The problem with miracle and wish stones is that aside from their powers, they are utterly impossible to distinguish. Not only do they share the same appearance, they share the identical size, weight, texture, etc. Every single detail is the same, as if they were manufactured from the same mystical source. One can easily mistake a wish stone for a miracle stone, and vice versa.

It is not difficult to see the problem here. The stone is used up when one states his desire to be fulfilled. Whether the desire is realized is another matter altogether.

The difficulty of finding even a single stone makes this a troublesome issue. One cannot simply keep trying until they find a correct miracle or wish stone.

I have heard rumors of someone asking for the ability to know the locations of every miracle stone. Such an ability would enable him to tell the difference between a miracle stone and a wish stone, which is an impossibility that can be granted by a miracle stone. Another rumor tells of someone that asked to be able to find thousands of stones, which is insanely difficult, but not impossible, and thus can be granted using a wish stone.

Those rumors end with them just having the wrong type of stone for their requests.

In fact, there are few tales of someone successfully using a wish or miracle stone. The successful stories are apocryphal at best.

I did, of course, manage to complete my task, and deliver the required artifacts.

Of course, such a thing is impossible, which is why I can tell you how I did it.

It simply isn’t very difficult to acquire stones that vanish when spoken to.