The Sterile Woman

A man went to a doctor and told him that his wife was not bearing children. The physician saw the woman, took her pulse, and said:

'I cannot treat you for sterility because I have discovered that you will in any case die within forty days.'

When she heard this the woman was so worried that she could eat nothing during the ensuing forty days.
But she did not die at the time predicted.

The husband took the matter up with the doctor, who said: 'Yes, I knew that. Now she will be fertile.'

The husband asked how this had come about.

The doctor told him:

'Your wide was too fat, and this was interfering with her fertility. I knew that the only thing which would put her off her food would be fear of dying. She is now, therefore, cured.'

The question of knowledge is a very dangerous one.