The Old Woman and the Doctor (or Physician) is a story of Greek origin that was included among Aesop's Fables and later in the 4th century CE joke book, the Philogelos.
One of its first appearances then was in an early Tudor period jest book, Merry Tales and Quick Answers (c. 1530), under the title "Of the olde woman that had sore eyes".
The story was rendered into Latin by the Papal scholar Gabriele Faerno and appeared in his collection of a hundred fables (1563) under the title "Mulier et medicus".
Other English treatments include Roger L'Estrange's in his Fables of Aesop (1692), which is little different from the version in Merry Tales and Quick Answers and comes to the cynical conclusion that 'There are few good Offices done for other People, which the Benefactor does not hope to be the better himself for't'.
In his telling, the woman is despoiled by a whole team of doctors whom he likens to ministers in Parliament stealing English wealth to prosecute a foreign war.