Okay, I ran a search on the polish phrase in Google Books, and find it cited as early as 1996, in Pamiętnik inteligenta: samo życie - Volume 2 - Page 330 by Franciszek Ryszka. There are some other cites from the late 1990s through 2014.
So it does appear to originally be Polish, but not exactly an “old” saying. If it IS old, it miraculously survived seeing print until 20 years ago.