Plausible steps to install nginx on vagrant & serve index.html

notes.txt

vagrant box add precise32 http://files.vagrantup.com/precise32.box
vagrant init precise32
vagrant up
vagrant ssh

in vagrant shell:
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install python-software-properties
  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nginx/stable
  sudo apt-get -y install nginx
  sudo mkdir -p /var/www/static

add index.html with content to vagrant home dir

in vagrant shell:
  cd /vagrant
  sudo mv index.html /var/www/static
  cp /etc/nginx/nginx.conf /vagrant
  
modify the nginx.conf file beginning on line 72
  # include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;

  server {
    listen 80;
 
    location / {
      root /var/www/static;
    }
  }

in vagrant shell:
  sudo cp /vagrant/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/
  sudo service nginx restart

in your Vagrantfile
  config.vm.forward_port 80, 8081
    
vagrant reload

in a browser, visit http://localhost:8081/index.html
bask in the beauty of "Hello, Static World!"