I have just been reading the book of Chuang Tzu, which is reputed to go back to 2-400BC. I am reading the Penguin edition. In the second chapter, I have just come across the use of the saying "don't count your chickens eggs...". If this part of the translation is original, which I am not certain, then this would be the true origin of this saying and not Aesop's fables and some other guy from the 1500's.
What say the people of this forum?