Birbal and the Taste of Salt

In a playful mood one day, Akbar asked each of his own daughters how much they loved him, delighting in answers that compared his worth to gold, to the sun, to the sweetest sugar — each daughter competing to offer the grandest possible comparison, and each rewarded generously with jewels for her flattering words.

Curious what a truly honest answer might sound like, Akbar posed the same question to Birbal's young daughter, who happened to be visiting the court that day. She considered the question seriously rather than reaching for the grandest possible metaphor, and finally answered: "I love you, Your Majesty, the way food loves salt."

The court burst into laughter and murmured disapproval at what seemed like a painfully modest, even insulting comparison next to gold and sunlight. Offended, Akbar ordered all salt removed from that evening's royal feast to teach the girl a lesson about the value of her own comparison. The meal that followed was utterly bland and inedible, every dish tasteless and wrong despite its rich ingredients, and Akbar finally understood: salt is cheap and unglamorous, yet nothing tastes right without it, however much gold or sugar sits beside it on the plate. He summoned the girl the next morning and rewarded her above all the others, admitting that hers had been the only answer that was actually, literally true.