AN OLD WOMAN having lost the use of her eyes, called in a Physician
to heal them, and made this bargain with him in the presence of witnesses:
that if he should cure her blindness, he should receive from her a sum of
money; but if her infirmity remained, she should give him nothing. This
agreement being made, the Physician, time after time, applied his salve to
her eyes, and on every visit took something away, stealing all her
property little by little. And when he had got all she had, he healed her
and demanded the promised payment. The Old Woman, when she recovered her
sight and saw none of her goods in her house, would give him nothing. The
Physician insisted on his claim, and. as she still refused, summoned her
before the Judge. The Old Woman, standing up in the Court, argued: "This
man here speaks the truth in what he says; for I did promise to give him a
sum of money if I should recover my sight: but if I continued blind, I was
to give him nothing. Now he declares that I am healed. I on the contrary
affirm that I am still blind; for when I lost the use of my eyes, I saw in
my house various chattels and valuable goods: but now, though he swears I
am cured of my blindness, I am not able to see a single thing in it."
