In this religious context, the Samgong bon-puri narrative demonstrates how the goddess assigns a propitious destiny to the good-hearted who respect her and an unfavorable one to the evil-minded who do not.

While the narrative per se exists only in Jeju Island, a very similar folktale is told in mainland Korea, albeit without religious significance.

The summary below is based primarily on a recitation by the shaman An Sa-in (transcription first published in 1980), often considered the "exemplary version" due to its narrative coherence.

The two older daughters credit their parents, but Gameunjang-agi claims that the family is prosperous by virtue of the linea nigra that connects her navel and her genitals.

[4] In another version, Gameunjang-agi actively causes her parents' blindness by throwing a handful of dust at their eyes, and then summon deities that destroy all of her family's properties.

She then pours them wine as they sing the story of their life since their marriage, repeating the early parts of the narrative in musical form.

Out of the thirty-one component procedures of the Great Gut, the shaman's full recital of the Samgong bon-puri narrative—which occurs immediately after the Igong-maji ceremony—constitutes the fourteenth ritual.

[14] The precise meaning of this word is unclear, but it has been translated as "the principles by which all things in the world are done, including having a job or becoming rich or falling ill."[15] It is often glossed as roughly equivalent to the notion of "fate" or "destiny.

[22] Seen in this ritual context, Gameunjang-agi's role in the myth is to assign a favorable jeonsang for the kind-hearted humans who respect her, such as the youngest brother, and to bring ruin and ill fortune for the evil-minded and those who disrespect her, such as her sisters.

"[23] Folklorist Kim Young-suk points out that the Samgong bon-puri centers on how the goddess demonstrates her power in the human world.

The subsequent destruction of the family demonstrates the fate of those who would challenge the gods,[24] with the parents' blindness a physical symbol of the hubris and ignorance that doom them.

[26] Finally, by restoring her parents' sight after depriving them of food, she acts as a spiritual guide who leads humans to acceptance of and communion with the gods through a process of initiation.

Once she is expelled from the house, she makes efforts to bring about interpersonal as well as material happiness, such as by involving her husband in the discovery of the gold and silver and by actively seeking out her parents and restoring their sight.

[28] Shin Tae-soo notes that Gameunjang-agi's behavior, in which she denies her parents' authority and murders her sisters but is nonetheless worshipped as a goddess, is at odds with the mainstream Confucian virtue of filial piety.

[29] Shin also argues that Gameunjang-agi identifying herself as the source of her fortune rather than an external cause reflects a shamanic insistence on the importance of self-driven action compared to the Neo-Confucian focus on social regulation and moral discipline, and that her charitable work seen in the beggars' feast and her curing of her parents' ignorance and blindness reveal shamanic definitions of righteous conduct.

[31] Many studies of the Samgong bon-puri are accordingly informed by a feminist framework and focus on the narrative's subversion of patriarchy.

[32] Korean society conventionally associated women with sentimentality, passivity, and selfless sacrifice, suiting their subordinate relationship to men.

But Gameunjang-agi openly affirms her worth as a woman before her parents[33] and leaves the family house, which is a symbolic space dominated by the conventional patriarchal order that does not accept her.

[34] She plays the active role throughout the rest of the story, consistently following her own desires rather than those of the men and showing none of the self-sacrifice or patient endurance expected of women.

[35] The myth concludes when the parents themselves enter the house built with the gold she found—a space where Gameunjang-agi plays the dominant role—and come to accept their daughter's independence and ability.

[35] Folklorist Shin Yeon-woo compares the role of female figures in the Chogong, Igong, and Samgong bon-puri, recited consecutively in the Great Gut.

The appearance or darkening of the linea nigra is an important symptom of pregnancy, and Gameunjang-agi's mention of it implies that her divine ability to bring about prosperity and fortune is directly connected to her potential as a woman to generate and bear new life.

[41] While the Samgong bon-puri is found only in southern Jeju Island, there is a related folktale widespread in mainland Korea, albeit with no religious significance.

The added focus on the heroine reflects the Jeju narrative's sacred function as the myth of an actively worshipped deity.

[43] It is possible that the mainland folktale descends from an ancient myth which was closer to the Samgong bon-puri, and which at some point lost its religious significance.

[47] The thirteenth-century Korean history Samguk yusa features a legend about the seventh-century King Mu of the ancient kingdom of Baekje, who was said to originally have been a poor yam gatherer.

[50] A major difference is that the woman is the protagonist of the Samgong bon-puri, whereas the man is the hero of the Samguk yusa legend.