'That's what you get for bragging': 15+ Tales of instant karma

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jan 25, 2024 11:00 AM EST

Karmic intervention is coming for those who need to be humbled. Just ask the people who shared their favorite stories of the times it's happened to them. 

It happens to every driver at some point: you're minding your business, enjoying a relaxing drive on the highway, when some dude decides to tailgate you. Some folks just have road rage, and all they want to do is compete with everyone else on the road. It seems like there are a few different types of these drivers. Some are trying to go fast, so if you're in their way, you'd better move. Others want to stare down other drivers and intimidate them (which usually just makes the other driver roll their eyes). These drivers always think they're so cool, but no one else takes them seriously. Well, except for police officers—they'll have no problem pulling over aggressive drivers and writing them ticket after ticket. Karma's going to get those road ragers!  

Other people had workplace karma stories involving their terrible customers. Watching crabby customers get what they deserve is so satisfying as it plays out. 

Check out these entertaining stories of karmic smackdowns. Then, read about one boss who cost the company $220k by signing off on catalogs that could never be put in the mail. 

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  • 01
    What is the best case of instant karma you have witnessed?
    via u/taz93v
  • 02
    mizzbrightside A customer absolute treating me like a lesser being just because I work in a convenience store and was threatening to get my pay cut in half, "but then again, you don't make that much anyway". being an hat and His card declined and he had to abandon his items. It was glorious.
    via u/mizzbrightside
  • 03
    ArchiveSQ I have a co-worker who's an older lady. She's pretty annoying. She butts into conversations and is braggy about the weirdest things. I think she's just really insecure. So we're working Labor Day and everyone's bummed to be there because it's slow and
    via u/ArchiveSQ
  • 04
    pointless. Our manager offers to buy KFC to cheer everyone up and boost morale. We're all excitedly ordering when Glenda (annoying lady) shows up and asks why everyone's so excited. We tell her about KFC and ask if she wants anything spceifically. She goes on to say that she brought lunch already - a DELICIOUS spicy meal that's HEALTHY AND
    via u/ArchiveSQ
  • 05
    HOMEMADE and she doesn't need KFC but you should just SEE how delicious her meal is. We're like "Okay, whatever anyway... and proceed to put in our orders. Seeing that the attention is off her, Glenda proceeds to microwave her meal 11 (her shift just started) and bring it back to literally waft the meal in front of us all "See
    via u/ArchiveSQ
  • 06
    how delicious! It's made with..." she recites this to everyone. We're all annoyed but let it pass. Finally, she goes to her last co-worker and wafts to bowl over the cubicle but tilts her lunch dish too far and spills her soupy chicken meal RIGHT into her handbag. My boss said "That's what you get for bragging."
    via u/ArchiveSQ
  • 07
    Cheff_excelence I was walking through the park and a homeless man asked me to a dollar for the bus, so I gave him one, later that day I was ordering food at sumburros and my card got declined because I never go there the total was $7 but I only had 6 so the cashier got me a dollar off
    via u/Cheff_excelence
  • 08
    chapter2at30 Happened to me this past Christmas... Playing the game Guesstures with some family including my older brother. He had to act out "sit-up". I laughed and asked him how many years since he had done a sit-up. On my next turn one of my cards was "push- up"....it had been a lot of years since I had last done a push-up...
    via u/chapter2at30
  • 09
    CallMeTDD I see a cop in an unmarked car on the highway and get behind her in the left lane. Some lady then starts tailgating me, escalates to the horn and flipping me off. She then pulls in the middle lane, passes me on the right, flipping me off and swearing. I
    via u/CallMeTDD
  • 10
    smile and wave, knowing what's about to happen. As soon as she passes the car in front of me, the lights go on and she gets pulled over.
    via u/CallMeTDD
  • 11
    Hippydippy420 My mom bought my son new shoes - he put them on and started to walk away and my mom says, "Wait, let me cut off the tag before you fall on your face", of course my son said, "NO" and he ran away.....soon as he went around the corner he tripped and
    via u/Hippydippy420
  • 12
    face planted. Kid's had instant karma since birth, it's a blessing and a curse all at the same time.
    via u/Hippydippy420
  • 13
    + [deleted] I almost ran into someone who was on their phone, they yelled at me to watch where I was going. They then proceeded to run into a pole and drop their phone, screen down.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 14
    propbjlunchinschool. A good one, happened to me: Finished a book on a plane for for Christmas vacation. Offered it to the flight attendant, she was thrilled to get it; I was happy to see she was happy. Thought that was the end.
    via u/propbjlunchinschool
  • 15
    Few days later, sitting reading @ the pool when a lady stops me, notices of read all day, and offers me the book she's just finished. I was thrilled, she looked happy to have it appreciated. My favorite kind of karma!
    via u/propbjlunchinschool
  • 16
    Wackydetective Last night this guy was high beaming me from behind and driving like a total psycho. He sped and I lost him. Caught up as he was being written a ticket.
    via u/Wackydetective
  • 17
    IRagretNothing I was sitting beside this guy in class. And this girl behind me dropped her paper on the ground. The guy beside me goes to pick it up and rubs it on the floor (my school has really dusty floors). As he's rubbing it on the ground his laptop starts to slip off his binder and falls on the ground. The corner of the laptop was cracked.
    via u/IRagretNothing
  • 18
    SheZowRaised ByWolves. Middle school. A kid gets up in my face and yells "SHUT THE..." when I was trying to get a friend's attention. The kid was still looking at me while he was walking away and ended up slipping in a puddle and landing, side first, onto the wet
    via u/SheZowRaised ByWolves
  • 19
    floor sign. The kid got I and punted the sign at the wall, which the conveniently placed vice principal just so happened to see, then taken to the front office.
    via u/SheZowRaised ByWolves
  • 20
    dxrey65 This has happened more than once. I live in a snowy area, winter roads can be pretty treacherous, and every road out of town goes over a mountain pass. Once I had to drive my daughter to a competition one city over, put on studded tires and headed out into the snow early, driving carefully.
    via u/dxrey65
  • 21
    Several cars passed us on the two-lane highway. One of them was a little SUV driving way too fast, and they honked at us before passing. "What an said. !" my daughter
    via u/dxrey65
  • 22
    About a mile later we drove by that little SUV, sideways off the road, front half buried in the snow berm, driver talking in his phone by the car looking seriously 1. We just laughed, and took it safe and easy all the rest of the way.
    via u/dxrey65
  • 23
    thepatricianswife I work customer service, which involves cashiering when covering someone's break or we're super busy. One day I was on the express register covering a break and it was noonish, so lunch rush, meaning I had a line of four people- one paying, three waiting. They all had maybe 5 items each at
    via u/thepatricianswife
  • 24
    the max. I've been doing this job long enough that I'm pretty quick, especially with such short orders. I watched this woman walk up from the floral department with a balloon bouquet, see my line, and apparently decide she was special and shouldn't have to wait like everyone else, so she headed to the customer service desk.
    via u/thepatricianswife
  • 25
    This is one of my biggest pet peeves, because we can't turn people away, but know if you do this I am absolutely the whole time thinking, "you're an .." The desk is for people who need things like returns or lottery or money wires, not just because you think you're too good to wait a couple extra minutes. It also annoys me because if we are legitimately getting
    via u/thepatricianswife
  • 26
    backed up, it delays me from opening a full size register to take some of the people who have already been waiting. I glanced over and saw my coworker already in the process of helping a lady and smiled a little, because the lady is a regular, and while not or anything, she always has to go over her receipt with a fine tooth comb. Any transaction involving
    via u/thepatricianswife
  • 27
    her takes a bit of time no matter what the details of it actually are. So I checked through the people in my line at my usual pace, and right when I got to the person she would have been had she just sucked it up and gotten in line with the plebs, I noticed her glance over, obviously realizing she I up. I checked out probably another two or three people before
    via u/thepatricianswife
  • 28
    the lady ahead of her at the desk was even finished. A minor thing, really, in the grand scheme of things, but it was exactly, proportionally what she deserved, so it was pretty satisfying!
    via u/thepatricianswife
  • 29
    Đ [deleted] When my buddy made fun of me for stubbing my toe and a few seconds later does it too.
    via u/ [deleted]
  • 30
    Jubjub0527 Driving home on New Years at a reasonable speed. Car zooms past me going over 85 at least. Second car zooms past me just as fast and turns his lights on.
    via u/Jubjub0527
  • 31
    Another time I was driving in traffic and someone was weaving in and out dangerously. Passing on the right, cutting people off, riding their , the works. About a mile later I saw that same car pulled over by a cop.
    via u/Jubjub0527
  • 32
    Oh another time I was a substitute teacher. This kid was being an absolutely to everyone in the room. Not doing the work, distracting everyone, not allowing me to teach... he was standing on a desk and I was telling him to get down. I told him it wasn't safe, he could hurt himself, etc. he
    via u/Jubjub0527
  • 33
    goes to jump off to show off to everyone watching, the desk moves from under him and he faceplants. Everyone laughed and he cried. It was so hard to not say I told you so.
    via u/Jubjub0527
  • 34
    Nataliewassmart I was in a parking lot and let someone have a parking spot that was closer to the store because I saw that they had kids, and I know the stroller situation can be rough if you park far away. So I parked in a farther parking spot where I found $50 on the ground.
    via u/Nataliewassmart
  • 35
    Montybeth I work with Southern Utah Animal Ambassadors. This one girl loved the reptiles but wouldn't stop talking about how our degu (think chubby South American rodents) are disgusting and gross.
    via u/Montybeth
  • 36
    Well, guess who the degu made a beeline for when a toddler pulled his tail. Guess who then got bit? This chick. Benny the degu doesn't go to events anymore.
    via u/Montybeth
  • 37
    Sgt-Tibbs Every single time my husband does something to me he gets dosed with instant karma. It could be something as small as tickling my feet (I hate that) and he'll either stub his toe, trip, hit into the doorframe, etc
    via u/Sgt-Tibbs
  • 38
    moments later. It is a constant thing and you'd think he'd learn by now, but nope. Irritating me is apparently worth the instant karma.
    via u/Sgt-Tibbs
  • 39
    r8ny So when I was about 9 my family went to Florida to see a Nascar race cause my Mom loved them. There were fires all over Florida and it got close enough to Daytona that they postponed the race until the fall. We were still in Florida, so my parents quickly switched our plans and we went to Disney instead! Yay! Much
    via u/r8ny
  • 40
    better for me. So in fleeing Daytona, my parents got us to go boxes of breakfast to eat in our rental car on the way to Disney. When we got there we were in FREAKING DISNEY WORLD so my sister and I lost our minds, forgot about our to go boxes and left them on the floor of the backseat of the rental car. My parents, trying to deal with last minute hotel
    via u/r8ny
  • 41
    reservations and luggage, did not notice. We had ten magical days in Disney! It was incredible! And then. The morning we left. Our rental car had been chilling in the parking lot since the day we got there. We had always used Disney transport. We open the door...
    via u/r8ny
  • 42
    ...to A BIBLICAL PLAGUE OF ANTS. Sweet Jesus. The amount of ants was INSANE. I've never seen so many ants. They were EVERYWHERE. They had piles of my sister and my leftover pancakes from our to go containers piled around the car. Ants . And for days. Holy we had to return the rental car and catch
    via u/r8ny
  • 43
    our train north so...my parents drove to a gas station and vacuumed the ants for like 20 minutes and STILL THERE WERE BIBLICAL LEVELS OF ANTS. But less Biblical. Like, still definitely ants but we weren't being carried off of our seats. More ants than you'd want in a car, though, for sure. crawling out of the vents and from all manners of places. So
    via u/r8ny
  • 44
    it looked clean but we knew...it wasn't. so we get to the rental place and my dad goes in, ready to explain about the ants and pay a fine and the person at the counter is completely out the employee at the desk about how she NEEDED a midsize car and why wasnt one available now because she requested it.
    via u/r8ny
  • 45
    Eventually she started berating the desk worker pretty , in the realm of verbal abuse. My dad said it got uncomfortable. The desk worker made eye contact with my dad and my dad held up the keys and said we were returning a midsize car. The woman apparently was still I but said she needed OUR CAR NOW.
    via u/r8ny
  • 46
    The worker tried to say, well, we need to bring it back and give it a once over and clean it. And the woman was like NO. I WILL TAKE IT WITHOUT THAT. I DON'T CARE IF ITS CLEAN, I WANT IT NOW. My Dad shrugged. Handed over the keys. Guy behind the counter handed the keys to the lady. My mom had already put
    via u/r8ny
  • 47
    our bags in a taxi to the train. The woman signed a paper, got in the car, and sped off. My dad signed our paper, said nothing, and we drove to the train station. I still wonder what that lady thought of all those ants, and if she immediately turned around and brought that car back.
    via u/r8ny
  • 48
    tl;dr: childhood sisters leave pancakes in a rental car accidentally, car fills up with ants, gets immediately rented to a lady who was verbally abusive to employee at rental car place.
    via u/r8ny

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