Once upon a time, there was a rich landlord called Pang Fu-gui who lived in Fengshan. He was miserly and often liked to take advantage of others. One day, two young men decided to use his greedy nature to play a prank on him. In Pang Fu-gui’s backyard, there was a birch tree, that had a crow’s nest in it. One day, the young men stood beneath the birch tree and kept staring upward at the crow’s nest. They also disturbed the crows on purpose, making them croak loudly. Pang Fu-gui heard the commotion and came running to see what was happening. When he saw the two young men staring intently at the crow’s nest on top of the tree. He shouted, “This birch tree is mine! What are you looking at? Be gone from here!”The young men whispered on purpose, “Pang is here! Let’s leave for now. He must not learn of our secret.”

Pang Fu-gui heard everything clearly, and secretly followed them to a temple where he heard one of the young men say, “Both of us dreamt that an old man with a white beard told us that in the crow’s nest atop Pang’s birch tree lies a magical grass of invisibility that makes anyone holding it invisible. We are sure to get rich with the grass.”

Pang Fu-gui grew very excited when he heard the news and wanted the grass for himself. So, he ran all the way home and took down the crow’s nest. Then, he started to test each stalk of grass to see which one was magical. He kept asking his wife, “Can you see me?”He kept asking till the sun went down. Finally, his wife lost her patience and said, “No, I cannot see you anymore.”Early morning the next day, Pang Fu-gui brought the grass with him to the bustling market street. Since no one liked him, no one bothered to say hi to him. Pang Fu-gui thought it was because nobody could see him and became complacent. He picked up a pear from the nearby fruit stall and began to eat it without paying for it first. The owner of the fruit stall thought Pang Fu-gui had gone crazy, so the owner ignored Pang, who became further convinced that his invisibility grass was working.

Eventually, he became bold enough to walk into the court house and tried to steal the government’s official seal in front of the guards. In the end, he was caught and beaten forty times as punishment. Then, he was locked up for trial, and suffered terribly.

　　從前在鳳山有位大財主叫做潘富貴，為人刻薄，又愛占便宜，有兩個年輕人決定利用他貪財的個性來捉弄他。潘富貴家的後院有一棵很大的白楊樹，上面有一個烏鴉巢，有一天，兩人跑到白楊樹下，一直抬著頭看樹上的鳥巢，還故意去吵烏鴉，讓牠們「嘎！嘎」亂叫，潘富貴被吵得跑出來看發生什麼事，發現有兩個人一動也不動的盯著鳥巢看，便大叫：「這是我家的樹，看什麼看，還不快走！」兩人故意小聲說：「潘財主來了，我們先走，這件事決不能讓他知道。」
　　潘富貴聽的一清二楚，便偷偷跟著他們來到祠堂，隔著門聽見其中一位說：「我們兩個都夢見，一位白鬍子的老公公說，潘家白楊樹上的烏鴉巢裡有一根隱身草，拿在手裡就可以隱身，有了它一定會發財。」
　　潘富貴一聽不得了，肥水怎麼可以落到外人手裡呢？趕緊跑回家，趕走烏鴉拿到鳥巢後，便一根一根試，一直問老婆：「你看得到我嗎？」問到太陽快下山時，老婆不耐煩說：「看不到了。」潘富貴第二天一早便拿著隱身草到大街上，因為大家都討厭他，根本不想跟他打招呼，他還以為大家都看不到他，沾沾自喜，順手拿了水果攤的水梨就吃，老闆以為他瘋了，不跟他計較，他更加確定隱身草有用。
　　最後竟然還大膽走進衙門，當著官兵的面前把官印拿走，結果，立刻被捉起來重打四十大板，還被關起來審問，吃足了苦頭。