Shi Guocun from northeast China's Liaoning Province believed that setting fire could bring him marriage, but the only thing he got after torching his neighbors' hay stacks was five-year imprisonment.

The 32-year-old Shi from Kazuo County of Chaoyang City convicted by the people's count of the county for setting fire for more than 10 times since October, 2008.

The court found that Shi was from an impoverished family with little education and slight mental retardation. As a result, it was difficult for him to have a girlfriend.

A fortune-teller told him last year that "raging fire could bring him marriage," said the court. The normally honest man torched another villager's hay stack that autumn.

Seeing that nobody catch him, Shi became bolder. He chose big stacks and windy days for arson so that the fire could be "raging."

He was nabbed on May 4 this year after trying to set fire in Lian Qingbo's home. Shi has confessed the arson.