When life gives you oranges, don't spill them along a highway.

A truck driver and his nephew were attacked by a group of villagers as the pair tried to stop the group looting their spilled cargo of oranges after their vehicle overturned on a highway in eastern China on Sunday (Nov 6), reported the South China Morning Post.

The driver wept by the road as villagers scrambled to pick the oranges off the road in Yichun, Jiangxi province, news portal Kankannews.com reported.

Villagers living nearby had dashed to the scene after the truck spun out of control and overturned, spilling the fruit across the highway, the report said.

However, they had not come over to help the pair.

The driver and his nephew, who were transporting the oranges from Hunan province, tried to stop the villagers from picking up the fruit. However, the pair were beaten up, as seen in the video footage circulated online.

Powerless to stop the looting, the driver squat by the side of the road and wept.

The villagers only left the scene after police officers intervened. It took the officers and the driver the whole afternoon to clear the remaining oranges and clean up the area.

The driver wept as he told reporters about the incident. It was his first long distance trip delivering fruit and he had borrowed money to buy the vehicle.

The total value of the oranges was over 10,000 yuan (S$2,076) and the driver waited five hours before his truck was towed away.