This folktale tells the tale of how a poor man first became rich through assisting the son of the serpent-sprit king, but later lost everything and became poor again. Once there was a poor man who subsisted by digging roots every day. While digging for roots one day, the man dug up a white snake who was actually the son of the king of the serpent-spirits. As thanks for helping him, the serpent-spirit prince gave the man a great palace, wealth, and a serpent-spirit princess to marry. While the man intially lived  happily, in the end he did not heed the warnings of his serpent-spirit wife and ended up losing everything he had gained and became poor once more.