14 Times Karma Hit Faster Than Lightning

Life has a curious way of balancing the scales. Sometimes, we act with good intentions, but other times, our actions come back to us in unexpected ways. The concept of karma, often seen as a slow-burning force, can strike with the speed and intensity of a lightning bolt, reminding us that what we put into the world can have an uncanny way of returning—often when we least expect it.

In this article, we explore the times when karma hit fast, leaving a lasting impact on those involved.

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• “Over 20 years ago at Megacon in Orlando, Florida, traffic was bad for parking, I let a car squeeze in ahead of me. Well, apparently this guy had been trying to merge for a while, and next thing I know he pays for my parking. Instant Karma.” © WombatInferno / Reddit

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• “It’s not much but once during a group project, we were sitting in a circle and, unbeknownst to me, when I stood up one of the girls had quietly moved my chair so that when I sat back down I hit the floor hard. I hate this prank and don’t really find it funny at all.
  I wasn’t mad for long though because while she laughed and went to sit on her own old crappy plastic chair, the leg snapped and she fell too. Instant gratification.” © cool-username1 / Reddit

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• “In high school, a shy girl asked a guy to the prom, and he scornfully said no and made his disgust very public. He wasn’t exactly the most popular or good-looking guy, but he had big ambitions.
  Right after publicly embarrassing his would-be suitor, he asked a very popular girl to the prom. She made it known, very loudly, that she wanted nothing to do with him. Nasty, but I felt like he deserved it.
  A few days later, he asked another popular girl to the prom in a very over the top, very public proposal involving multiple expensive flower bouquets. She took one look at the spectacle and walked away without saying anything. I actually don’t blame her b/c it was a pretty embarrassing, and she didn’t want to be involved. That was a good second wave of karma.” © Goldeverywhere / Reddit

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• “My wife’s oldest sister used to try and insinuate that she was pregnant before we got married (she wasn’t), but it really bugged my wife. Then I got into genealogy and did my wife’s family and printed out a book with details and dates.
  While looking it over for the first time, the sister goes pale and tells me I have her mom and dad’s wedding date wrong. Her mom checked and says nope, it’s right. But that makes me being born 6 months later. Her mom says yep, that’s right. She never bugged my wife again.” © Santatim_NC / Reddit

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• “I was at a red light. There are three lanes. A left turning one, one that goes straight, and a right turning lane. The road across the intersection is a single lane road. I’m in the middle lane and there’s a car next to me in the right turning lane.
  The light turns green and I start rolling forward. I guess the guy in the right turning lane didn’t know it was a turning lane only, or he wanted to be in the front of the long line of cars going straight. He sped up, honked and cut me off in the middle of the intersection.
  He did this right in front of a cop that was stopped at the red light. They put their lights on and pulled the guy over. I was laughing so hard as I drove by the dude who looked defeated.” © SpiffyPaige143 / Reddit

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• “I was at a touristy place at the top of a big cliff. People were hanging around at the top, just enjoying the view, and this one guy was eating a sandwich while staring at his phone. After he was done, he couldn’t be bothered to find a trash can, so he went to throw the sandwich wrappings off the cliff, but he got his hands confused and hurled his phone off the cliff instead.” © Piano9717 / Reddit

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• “My friend was giving me a ride home, and while we were sitting at a red light, a motorcyclist starts zipping between the lanes to get to the front, almost causing an accident in the turning lane and almost taking off my friend’s mirror. The car in front of us turned out to be an undercover cop car, and when we started driving again, we immediately saw the motorcyclist pulled over, under the overpass.” © Squid-In-The-Sky / Reddit

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• “One time a guy pulled up next to me in a modified car at a red light. I’m not sure what it’s called in English, but it was one of those cars that are very close to the ground. As he pulled up next to me, he started revving the engine.
  As the light turned green, he hit the gas and drove straight into a bump on the road and his entire fender fell off. I just smiled at him while driving past.” © Renediffie / Reddit

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• “Was walking back from the pub, not too late at night. It was raining. My friend stopped, lifted his foot above a snail (ready to stomp on it) and said ‘I hate snails’ and then stomped... Turns out, it wasn’t a snail, but a dog poop, which sprayed right up his other leg and shoes.” © jtroll / Reddit

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• “A person tried to shove past me in the hallway. Immediately after, a door opened up into the hallway and slammed him in the face.” © thegreatestsnowman1 / Reddit

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• “I used to work in a 24-hour emergency vet hospital. We were extremely busy one night, dealing with stat after stat, so the waiting room filled up with cases that were non-emergent.
  One woman, who was there because her dog had an ear infection, kept harassing the receptionists demanding when she would be seen. They tried to explain to her many times that there were more emergent cases that needed to be seen first, which included one dog needing immediate cpr, she did not care. She called us every name under the sun and demanded that because she arrived before everyone she needed to be put in a room next, told her to sit down to see what could be done.
  Shortly after sitting down, she started screaming at the top of her lungs. A family next to her whose Saint Bernard happened to have an extremely large pus filled abscess on his ear decided to shake his head right after she sat down and ruptured his foul smelling abscess allllll over her. She decided right after that her dog could wait to see his regular vet tomorrow, and she went home. Everyone in the waiting room and the entire staff told that Saint Bernard how much of a good boy he was.” © Happy_Refuse5094 / Reddit

Karma doesn’t need a GPS—it always finds its way back to people. So next time you think you can skip the good deeds, remember: the universe has a way of showing up uninvited!