I went to a clinic in Jumeirah to see my gynaecologist for a routine pregnancy checkup in December 2009. When I was about to leave the room, a very old woman, maybe in her early 70s opened the door and came in.

The doctor was unhappy. She opened her purse and took out I assume around Dh400, and gave it to her.

The doctor clearly told her to wait for the beginning of next month before showing up again.

Couple of weeks ago, I went to another clinic in Jumeirah to see an orthopaedic. The same woman was there again.

Again she went to the doctor’s room and came out carrying few notes of Dh100. A quick glance at her hands make me think that she got around Dh500 from the doctor.

I asked the doctor who is this woman? If she is a beggar than how come she never asked the patients for money?

The answer I received was amazing. The doctor said that this lady comes all the way from Ras Al Khaimah at the beginning of every month to collect money from him.

The funny thing is that he admitted that he gives her money because he fears of her curse.

He said: “Now the business is very good praise God. This is a very old woman. She is the same age of my mother. I feel sorry for her and give her the money. She is a stubborn lady and I fear that if she curses me, then maybe God will not bless me and I won’t be doing well in my clinic.”

The poor doctor didn’t know that she makes the same routine check on other clinics in the same area.

If we calculate it, on average, if each doctor gives her Dh300 and if she goes to minimum five clinics in Jumeirah, then she is making Dh1,500 on that day only.
I am confident that she must be making the same routine visit to other areas in Dubai and maybe other emirates too. In this case, she is making around Dh7,500 a week which comes to around Dh30,000 a month.

This is definitely more than what she will get if she chose to beg from the patients. It seems as a very good retirement plan.

In one way, it is good that she is looting the greedy doctors who nowadays charge large amounts of money for the consultation only.

The funniest part in all this is that these doctors charge around Dh400 for the consultation from patients to see them. On the other hand, they pay the almost the same amount to this woman to see her.