Along the way, Ning asked the man for some more information.
It had turned out that the man always lived alone and never made any money aside from what little things he sold from his farm.
He was okay with that for a while, but once he fell down a ditch on the side of the mountain, he had broken his legs and was since then not able to work.
He spent many days in his home, waiting for his leg to heal, but during that time, someone else took away his farm since he hadn't worked on it.
There was still some time before he could get a farm of his own, but his resources were running low.
So, he first asked his neighbors to help him a little, which they did. But after a while, they stopped helping him. They would ignore him if he asked for anything.
With no other choice, he had resorted to thievery.
"Sir, please let me go. I have no money to pay the fees at all. If I did, I wouldn't have to steal to live, would I?" the man asked.