"In English, "thank you" derives from "think." It originally meant, "I will remember what you did for me"--which is usually not true either--but in other languages (the Portuguese obrigado is a good example) the standard term follows the form of the English "much obliged"--it actually does mean, "I am in your debt." The French merci is even more graphic: it derives from "mercy," as in begging for mercy; by saying it you are symbolically placing yourself in your benefactor's power--since a debtor is, after all, a criminal.63 Saying "you're welcome" or "it's nothing" (French de rien, Spanish de nada)--the latter has at least the advantage of often being literally true--is a way of reassuring the one to whom one has passed the salt that you are not actually inscribing a debit in your imaginary moral account book. So is saying "my pleasure"--you are saying, "No, actually, it's a credit, not a debit--you did me a favor because in asking me to pass the salt, you gave me the opportunity to do something I found rewarding in itself!"64"