Debbie

I love you more than …

We live with love everyday, family love, heterosexual love, friend love… love is everywhere around us. How much do you love someone? If you face a sentence: I love you more than ____. What will you fill in the blank?

I remember there’s such a story in Grimm's Fairy Tales:

Once upon a time, there was a king with three daughters. One day, he put a question to his daughters coz he wanted to know how much they loved him.

“Dear, I really want to know how much you love me. Pray, tell me.”

The eldest princess answer firstly: “My dear father, I love you more than I love gold and silver.”

The second daughter spoke next: “Dad, I love you more than I love diamonds and pearls, more than rubies and emeralds, or any other gem.”

Then, the king looked at his third, youngest daughter, to whom he gave most of his love.

“Father, I love you more than salt.” The youngest princess spoke simply, quietly.

More than salt?! The king was pleased with the previous two answers since they love him more than such valuable and precious things, but he was quite unhappy with the third reply. He couldn’t believe his youngest daughter had compared him to something so common and coarse as salt. He got so angry that he banished his youngest princess from the kingdom.

The youngest daughter left without saying anything, simply carrying away a small box of salt in her pocket.

There are lots of long versions of this story; the details are different from each one while the endings are the same:

After the youngest princess’s leaving, all the salt disappeared in this kingdom. The king got weaker and weaker day by day. Finally, the youngest princess came back to save his father. She called for broth, sprinkled salt in it, and encouraged her father to eat. The king recovered slowly, after that, until he was well.

After this, the king finally realized that salt's importance came from much more than just making food taste good. Salt is essential to people’s health.

The king never looked down on salt any more, and he knew that his youngest daughter loved him best of all, for when she said “I love you more than salt”, she meant that she loved him more than that which gives life, which is the greatest love indeed.

“Daughter, can you forgive a foolish father?”
“Of course, father. I love you, more than salt” She answered smiley.

Guess how much I love you? Here are also some replies from internet, all kinds of, warm, funny, touching, lovely and confused ones as well. Have a look: