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AKARTA: It is not a lie if you believe it, or so Seinfeld said, and it seems that is what a 62-year-old man from Penjaringan, a fire-prone North Jakarta slum, has been practicing what he claims is his ability to lays eggs.

Kong Naim, aka Sinin, has become an overnight sensation thanks to his convincing accounts of how he has regularly laid eggs every three months since 1998. He only came clean with his '€œsecret'€ this week, which caused a media frenzy and gave Naim celebrity status.

'€œI laid four eggs this month,'€ he told kompas.com.

Curious people have been flocking to his humble abode since the news went viral on social media. Savvy neighbors saw the craze as a business opportunity and now charge visitors at least Rp 2,000 on top of the unofficial parking fee to see the man and his collection of '€œeggs'€.

Over time, the story about the egg man has blown up to a point of being a combination of fact and fiction. Some locals swear they personally assisted Naim when he laid his eggs and show visitors the '€œeggs'€, which they have put in transparent plastic bags.

Naim said that soon after he laid his first eggs in 1998, he visited a doctor at Cipto Mangunkusmo General Hospital (RSCM) in Central Jakarta.

'€œI spent three weeks there. Doctors saw me lay eggs. They were 100 percent convinced, but said my condition had no cure and they eventually gave up,'€ he said.

But government officials who are stunned by the public hysteria are skeptical. Bambang Suherman, chief of the North Jakarta health agency, took Naim and his '€œeggs'€ to a hospital Friday for a laboratory test.

'€œMedically speaking, this is impossible,'€ he said.