This wiki page links to a legend: Straw Millionaire: Japanese Buddhist folk tale about a poor man who becomes wealthy through a series of successive trades, starting with a single piece of straw.

The funny thing is that in my language, Polish, there's populat completely opposite nursery rhyme. About a guy who through serie of trades went from house to a stick. But in the end ot was all fine because he inherited 4 houses from a grandfather.

How much of this would be possible nowadays with all the online marketplaces? I can't imagine such arbitrage is still possible.