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In the first chapter of Fullmetal Alchemist, Ed and Al come across [Father
Cornello](http://fma.wikia.com/wiki/Cornello) at the city of Reole.

> The Elric brothers Edward and Alphonse discover, soon after arriving in
> Reole, that Cornello's 'miracles' are nothing more than alchemy augmented by
> a Philosopher's Stone that the priest has in his possession.

One of the biggest rules of Alchemy is Equivalent Exchange, and Ed sees
Cornello obviously breaking those rules, something that should have been
impossible in Alchemy without the philosopher's stone.

[![Fullmetal alchemist chapter 1 page
20](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Hagya.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Hagya.png)

Ed and Al have been searching for the Philosophers Stone as a way of returning
their bodies back to how it was. Even if it wasn't a complete Philosopher's
stone, the fact Cornello was able to bypass equivalent exchange should have
been incredibly significant in itself and pursuing this lead would likely have
lead them a step closer to their goal.

> And it was later revealed that a Homunculus was behind the incident.

However, Ed, upon realising the stone was not a true philosopher's stone, left
the town. Why is this? Did he, for some reason, think of it as unimportant,
and if so, why?


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2015-10-06T16:24:43.283
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fullmetal-alchemist-series fullmetal-alchemist-manga
Why does Ed not pursue the origin of the fake Philosopher's stone used by Cornello?


Ed didn't actually think it was unimportant, but you have to realize that
alchemy was so scares in that town that people were actually willing to accept
Cornello as a demi-god ( _yes, he had a philosopher's stone, but in a city
with more alchemy, they would probably end up questioning him on how he breaks
the laws of equivalent exchange_ ). **It's not that it was unimportant, it's
just there was nothing there.**


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2015-10-07T22:35:54.367
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I'm getting all of the following information from episode 3 of Fullmetal
Alchemist Brotherhood.

Near the end of the episode, Ed exposed Cornello as a liar to all his people.
Cornello attempts to kill Ed using his alchemy. During the attempt, Cornello's
alchemy "rebounds" and causes some ... adverse effects on Cornello. After a
short fight, Cornello's fake stone breaks. Ed starts asking about it and
Cornello states he knows nothing about it.

Given all that, I don't believe Ed didn't think it wasn't important, but that
he had nowhere to go with that. First, the stone was gone and couldn't help Ed
learn anything. Cornello was equally useless in learning about the stone.

On top of that, a real stone would have allowed Cornello or Ed to do whatever
they wanted, presumably without any rebounding. This made the fake stone even
less desirable for two reasons. First, there is no guarantee that it could
even help Ed and Al (granted there was a chance, but it may not have been
worth the time to look into). Secondly, even if Ed did get his hands on a fake
stone, there was no telling if it would rebound and just make matters worse.

Overall, it's not that it wasn't important, just that Ed had no leads on where
or how to get a fake stone and that the risk might not have been worth it.


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