A horrible item that plagues NetHack players everywhere. A loadstone resembles a luckstone or flint, but instead of conferring luck, it confers an encumbrance of 500, equivalent to carrying 500 gems, 50000 zorkmids, a suit of plate mail, or a chest with some junk in it. Loadstones are difficult to get rid of, because they are almost always cursed -- popular methods include getting a nymph to steal it, praying, casting remove curse (or reading the scroll) or (not recommended) a wand of cancellation.

Note that loadstones auto-curse, that is, they move towards a cursed state every time they are dropped. If you manage to drop a loadstone, you were darned lucky.

A better idea is to avoid picking them up in the first place. Kick every gray stone you come across -- if it is a loadstone, a loud "THUMP" will result. Otherwise, it'll go flying, and it's probably a flint stone but could be a luckstone.