To be the same after being manipulated by chess pieces, there must be a box with chess pieces in it, so that an empty box will appear after taking away the chess pieces. Similarly, there must be a box with two pieces, so that a box with only one piece will appear after taking one, which matches the initial situation, and so on. The number of pieces in each box is 1.2.3.4 ... and so on.

We know that 78 = 0+1+2+3+...+12.

So a *** 13 box contains 78 yuan.