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15 People Share Their ‘Instant Karma’ Stories

Do you believe in karma? It’s the idea that your past actions determine what happens to you in the future, and after reading these stories…I think there may be some truth to it.

After all, it’s nice to remember the importance of treating others with love and respect, especially if it means you don’t bring a whole bunch of karmic misery on yourself in the future. These 15 Redditors shared stories of people who definitely got what was coming to them.

Have fun!

1. Just what he needed

“I found a purse that was left in a cart outside of a store where I used to work. I went against policy and opened it and found a name and then contacted the lady. It was her purse, and she had been frantically looking for it.

I waited at the store after hours for her to come by and get it, and she gave me an envelope to open when I got home. It turned out to be almost exactly how much I was short on for rent ($120).”

2. Bonus

“I worked for an events company, and the morning of our biggest annual event last year, I was sent to the office to pick up a couple of things. As I was leaving the office, another guy approached me with a sob story. I was in a hurry, so I cut him off and was just like, ‘How much do you need?’ He said $10 would do, so I gave him the money and headed on my way.

The event went fine. It wasn’t great in terms of how much money we made, but we sometimes got bonuses at my job which were usually tied to the event and how much money it made. I wasn’t expecting a bonus due to a sub-par year, but two days later, I had a bonus check worth five percent of my salary sitting on my desk.

I’d like to think the karma gods were smiling on me.”

3. The easiest money he ever made

“I was out with my girlfriend at a late night movie when I spotted another older couple walking. Now I have to admit now, the guy I saw had on a long coat, cane, and wore sunglasses during the night. That being said, I’m fairly certain the man was a hustler or held some related job.

The wind was blowing hard that night. All of a sudden, I watch this guy’s hat fly off into the street. He didn’t seem to mind and just kept walking. I assumed it was because he didn’t want to look dumb chasing his hat down the road.

I, on the other hand, had no shame and began chasing it just for fun trying to be helpful.

I brought his hat back to him, and he said, ‘Thanks, brother.’

I replied, ‘No problem, man. I just like chasing stuff.’

He then went in for a handshake, and I felt something in his hand. At this point, I’m not sure if he just handed me a bag of something bad or a business card. So, I walked away with my girlfriend.

Once we got in our car, I turned to her and said, ‘That guy just gave me this.’

I unfolded a crisp $100 bill and proceeded to buy drinks for everyone that night.

It was the easiest $100 I’ve ever made.”

4. Furniture salesman

“At one point in my life, I sold furniture and was terrible at it. It was a rough point in my life where I made MAYBE $1,000 a month (This was around 10 years ago) and pretty much had nothing left after rent and bills. There were a lot of times when I didn’t eat for days because I couldn’t afford to buy food.

One day, I was trying to sell furniture and was selling absolutely nothing. It was nearing the end of the day, and I had made $0 (I was on commission).

An old couple came in, and they were looking at TV stands. All of the other sales representatives avoided them because we all knew that they were going to take up a bunch of time and probably just end up buying something for around $100 (and that was around a $2 commission). There were also no add-ons because who in their right mind would purchase a $29.99 extended warranty on a $100 item.

I looked at them and figured, ‘Oh well…

If I can sell anything today, then at least I won’t get skunked, and maybe my luck will turn around after that.’

They ended up buying two stands (which was a $6 commission for me) but asked how they would be put together. They were old and couldn’t do it. There was a service I could’ve referred them to (for a fee, of course), but I was desperate and didn’t want to lose the sale especially after having spent around 45 minutes with them.

So I said, ‘I’m off at 9 p.m. If you pick me up, I’ll come and set up the stands for you for free.’ They took the offer, paid for the furniture, and left.

The other sales reps laughed at me. They laughed at me more when my quitting time came around, and I hadn’t sold anything else. The old couple picked me up promptly at 9 p.m., and I loaded the boxes into their trunk. As we drove to their house, I found out he was a retired judge, and she was a housewife.

We got into their beautiful condo, which was a lot bigger than most houses, and I began working on assembling the furniture.

I could smell some food cooking and tried to ignore it (I hadn’t eaten in three days, so it was hard). I worked for almost three hours straight until it was all done. I then moved the finished product into position and even moved their TVs for them.

It was getting close to midnight, and I was trying to politely excuse myself from their home.

The old lady then grabbed me and took me to their kitchen. She seated me and pulled out a plate of freshly made roast beef. This itself was better than any money. I was so grateful and thankful that I held back tears as I ate the delicious homecooked meal she had just prepared for me. It was now after 12:30 a.m. I thanked them again and was about to leave when the old man stopped and offered me a ride home.

The old lady packed up the rest of the roast beef and told me to keep the Tupperware. They both came for the ride, and I couldn’t stop thanking them for helping me.

As the car stopped and I got out and thanked them one last time, the lady handed me an envelope. I didn’t open it but just said, ‘Thank you.’ I happily went up to my apartment knowing that I was going to sleep with a full stomach that night and that I would get to eat for the next couple of days.

I was feeling great. I opened the envelope, and there was a ‘thank you’ card with $100 inside. I cried so much.

After that, for the rest of the time that I sold furniture, I always ran to help the people nobody else wanted to. I changed my focus from getting a big sale every day to getting all of the smaller ones that nobody cared about, and it got me through until I got a better paying job.”

5. Secret Millionaire

“We went out with my uncle and his family for dinner at a nice restaurant in Dallas/Ft Worth. There were seven of us there and just spent the night trying to see how much we could spend on one dinner. This guy from the bar kept coming up to our table and making conversation by commenting on how awesome my 6-month-old son was, etc.

By the end of the night, he was starting to get annoying, and my uncle was discussing with us whether or not he should say something, but we told him not to.

I said, ‘Don’t worry about it, he’s just having a good time. Plus, he seems like a good guy.’

So, when it came time to pay our bill, the waiter just said, ‘Have a nice evening, and thanks for coming in.’

My uncle and I were confused and asked the waiter about the check. He told us that the guy who had kept coming up to us paid our tab and that it was already done so there nothing we could do about it.

He even told us that that guy did stuff like this all the time. Our bill was $1,500. Later, my uncle sought the guy out in the other room and gave him a big hug.

The guy just said, ‘You have such a beautiful family just remember to pay it forward sometime.’

The guy even tipped the waiter some crazy amount from the look the waiter gave us.

So, I learned always be nice to the loud guy in the bar because you never know who might be a secret millionaire.”

6. A severe accident

“We had a blood drive at school after a classmate had gotten himself into a pretty severe accident. A while later, I decided to donate again. I was told that after they had tested my previous donation, I had missed out on some childhood disease.

This meant my blood could be given to infants. I regularly donate now and feel good every time.”

7. Just a bonus

“I pulled into a parking lot to go and pick up a little kitten that we had seen curled up on the ground. I immediately ran out of gas, but if we hadn’t pulled in there, then we would have run out of gas in the middle of a busy, traffic-heavy road.

The kitten was just a bonus!”

8. Living out of a car

“When I was 16, I lived out of my car because I couldn’t get an apartment because no one would rent to a 16-year-old. It was an old beater, and I had to push start it everywhere. I pulled into a Walmart to buy some decent clothes (which I needed more than I needed the parts for my car), and there was a purse in the basket of the cart next to me.

I opened it and inside the wallet was a $1,000 in cash, several credit cards, and an ID. I wanted so badly to spend it all, and I was going to. ‘Score!’ I thought. ‘New clothes, plus the parts that I need.’

I grabbed the cash and put the purse back in the cart.

As I was paying for the clothes, I just couldn’t bring myself to pay with her money. So, I paid with mine and went back to my car. The purse was still where I had left it, so I put the money back and looked at the address.

It was right down the road, but it took me about an hour to find. I finally got there, parked in the street, and the lady was standing in her garage next to her nice new car in a fancy neighborhood on the phone canceling all of her credit cards.

I walked up and asked her if she had lost her purse.

I was pretty rough looking, and I could tell she was a bit nervous. I handed it to her and told her that I had had to open it to find her address. She didn’t say anything. I got into my car and left. I was disappointed because it seemed like she didn’t even appreciate it.

Anyway, I continued to where I worked (I stayed there in my car most of the time.) The next day, I woke up and went to McDonald’s to get some breakfast. I got to work and saw the lady leaving but then thought, ‘Ahh, that wasn’t her.

It must’ve just been a coincidence.’

When I went inside the parts for my car were there, $100, and a note that read: ‘Thanks.’ I was confused (How did she know which parts I needed? How did she know where I worked?) A few days before I had gone over what I needed for my car, wrote it down on the back of a pay stub along with the number to the parts house.

Apparently, when I got out at her house, this paper came out of my car. She wrote in the note that she had seen it after I had left and picked it up. After she realized all her money was in her purse along with everything else, she went down and picked up the parts and dropped them off for me.

This was easily the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me.

For about an hour’s drive, I got over $300 worth of car parts and $100 in cash. The good feeling that I had for weeks, though, well that was worth way more than the $600+ I would’ve made if I had kept her money.”

9. Sorry, bro

“My brother and I were stuck at a friend’s house because they had a wild guard dog that broke its chain. My brother pushed me out, so I had to run to the gate as the dog chased me. I managed to escape and went home.

My brother got home 30 minutes later and went to bed crying because I told my mum he was sleeping over and had eaten his dinner.”

10. Perfect catch

“The drama nerd that I am, I once had an armload of bags and was running late for a rehearsal. No parking spots were available outside of the theatre, so I got stuck parking outside of the quad on my campus and had to walk towards the theatre.

There was a load of jocks throwing a football around by my spot goofing off. I parked and proceeded to struggle with balancing the bags while looking like a complete geek.

As I passed by the jocks, the ball ‘accidentally’ came my way/ right towards me, but as it ebbed towards my legs, I coolly kicked the football upwards and caught it with my nondominant hand (even as both of my arms were still loaded down with bags).

I then proceeded to toss it back to them casually and continue my journey while they were left completely shocked.”

11. Karma’s a trip

“I was out for dinner with my then-fiancee, who is now my wife, and her dad. He was always a bit mean to her. He got divorced and remarried and seemed to love those kids more than my wife. He tended to give her smack over too many things, etc.

Anyway, we were at the end of the dinner, and my father-in-law offered to pay for the meal.

Okay, that’s a nice gesture. My wife asked to get her leftovers boxed so that she could take it home.

He started with, ‘Well, you’re just going to leave it in the fridge, and then it’ll just get thrown out.

Blah, blah. blah.’

I told him, ‘Listen, it’s not your fridge, so leave her alone.’ (We were living together at this point).

He got all mad and said, ‘Don’t tell me how to raise my daughter!’

I replied with, ‘Then don’t speak to my fiancee that way!’

He threw the bill and folder thing at me and said, ‘FINE! THEN YOU PAY’ and stormed out.

By now, everyone was upset, and my fiancee was saying to me, ‘Why did you have to start something?’

I paid the bill and was waiting for the receipt (for a good 10 minutes or so).

I thought to myself ‘What’s going on?’ There was a lot of tension, and her dad was just waiting outside at this point building up steam probably getting ready to blow once we got out.

I asked the waiter, ‘Can I just get our bill and go?’

‘Oh no sir, you have to wait for the manager.’

It turns out, they were having a running promotion where ‘Every bill was a winner.’ Normally, you would win a free drink or an appetizer with your next meal, but we won the GRAND PRIZE which was a trip for four to Florida.

Whoever paid got the prize. WELL, GUESS WHAT… I PAID BECAUSE HER FATHER STORMED OUT. KARMA’S REAL.”

12. Pizza delivery

“I used to deliver pizzas. I was taking redelivery for an order that was done wrong the first time around. It was going to the worst hotel in our delivery area. The redelivery was a single one-topping medium pizza.

I pulled up, and there was a guy that said he needed some cash for a tow truck.

He gave me a typical sob story about how his wife and kids were blah, blah, blah. Normally, I don’t give into those kinds of things, but on occasion, I take the approach of, ‘Well, if this guy is lying to me then shame on him.’

Aside from that, for some reason, his story seemed more plausible. Supposedly, we had graduated from the same high school (Although he was a little bit older than I was). I cut to the chase, asked him how much cash he needed, and gave him $7.

He ran back over to the gas station, and I didn’t see him again. I had a pizza to deliver!

I ran up the stairs of the hotel to the room, gave them their replacement pizza, apologized for the first mistake, and left.

As I was walking away, the guy came out and was like, ‘Oh wait, we forgot to give you a tip.’ Any tip on redelivery was a win, so I hustle back to the room. The guy handed me a $50 bill and told me to have a good night.”

13. Not a bad paycheck

“I was a $10/hour employee at a ski resort. I found a wallet with $500 in it that I turned in. Later, I was called to the office to meet the man who owned the wallet. He gave me $100 as a reward.”

14. Groceries

“I had just finished grocery shopping and loaded my bags into my car, got in, and turned the key to get nothing… oh no. My car was dead for whatever reason. I sat there for another 20 minutes, checking the wires on my battery to make sure that everything was properly in place.

I just changed the battery a month ago, so I knew that it couldn’t be that. I called my girl to come and pick me up. She said that it was going to be another 20 minutes, so I had time to kill.

I happened to see an elderly lady pushing her cart to her car.

This cart had four times more bags than mine did. I already know it was going to be a struggle for her. I went over and offered her help. She accepted. So, I help her load her groceries into her car.

I headed back and thought, ‘What the heck?

Why not give my car one more try.’ Bam. It started. My first thought, ‘This car must run on karma.'”

15. Take a seat

“One time when I was about 8 years old, my older sister and I were fighting over a seat. This seat was ‘Godlike’ and was the softest and coldest in the summer heat. She won the argument with brute force and sat down on it as a result of her victory over me.

There was a wasp lodged in the cushions with its stinger exposed right where she sat. She was allergic and cried the whole day.”

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