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The Universe really does work in mysterious ways. No matter if you’re a super-skeptic who only believes what they see with their own two eyes or somebody who checks their horoscope every morning, you can’t deny that it’s spooky how quickly karma sometimes catches up to people. On rare occasions, it’s nearly instantaneous. And karma loves putting evildoers in their rightful place.

To show you what we mean, we’ve collected some of the best posts from the ‘Instant Karma’ subreddit that prove that Justice (yes, with a capital ‘J’) can sometimes strike like a bolt from the blue. As you’re scrolling down, upvote the pics where you agree with how karma dealt with people and let us know in the comments if you’ve ever seen any instant karma moments in your own life. Be sure to give r/instantkarma a follow if you like what they do.

According to Dr. Alex Lickerman on Psychology Today, Nichiren Buddhism teaches that everything that happens to us is “ultimately due to our own influence.” Whether intentional or quite the opposite. Meanwhile, coincidence is considered to be but an illusion. Or, in short, what goes around really does come around—but with everything that you think and do.

Bored Panda reached out to Lickerman, the author of The Ten Worlds and The Undefeated Mind, and spoke to him about humankind's hardwired sense of morality, as well as the benefits of taking responsibility for all of our actions. Read on for his insights.

#1

Pretty Instant Karma

Pretty Instant Karma

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Wendillon
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'd love to hear what the 911 call was like. "Yeah a guy broke into my home and threatened me with a knife, can you send him an ambulance?"

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Yugan Talovich
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'd love to hear what his talks with his cell mates are like! "I took a knife to rob this old codger and he beat me black and blue.

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Dr Nostromo
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's funny how bullies and intimidators never learn the first rule of engagement ...know you're enemy. If one goes about intimidating a complete stranger, they have no idea what they're walking into.

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Raine Soo
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Not today, punk!" The perpetrator got a well deserved ass-kicking and face-pummeling.

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Okay Dokey
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Reminds me of my grandfather. He was well in his 70s when he went into the kitchen at night to get something to drink. Then he heard somebody messing with the door. Didn't end nice for the burglar facing off with a prior professional boxer and WW2 marine diver...

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Caleb Lumpkin
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

hahah got his a** whooped by a old guy. thats why age dont mean crap

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Lola
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Brave man who gave this thug exactly what he deserved. My father was attacked by two twenty-somethings years ago when he was in his fifties. Little did they know, my father was ex military and ex martial arts instructor. The beating they received will be remembered until the day they die. I bet you he can do the same now in his 70s.

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Hans
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The photo on the left, though: "nothing to see here folks, move along"

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로희
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The robber was "lucky" that the home owner is not ambidextrous.

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Tasha S
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I really hope he said "Go ahead, make my day" before he kicked the crap outta the dummy.

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Louise B
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Reminds me of my grandfather too. When you grow up in 1930s Ireland with 11 brothers- you grow up tough! But, if that little twat had got through the front door, he would have had to face my grandma - and she was on another level! He'd never look the same!

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Kat Rucker
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Brings to mind one of my favorite episodes of the "Cops" show - in Las Vegas, I believe. A young thug thought he had an easy mark in an older fellow who seemed a bit tipsy and attempted to mug him. However, the older fellow was a former Golden Gloves champion. By the time police arrived, the thug was literally a bleeding lump in the gutter. The cops asked the older fellow what happened and he said "Well, he tried to rob me so I commenced to stoppin' him." LMAOOOOO

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Marnie
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I still remember that about 25 years ago, there was an article about how a purse snatcher tried to snatch the purse of a 90+ year old woman in my home town, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. She beat him with her purse so badly he went to the hospital. I have never forgotten it and never will.

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Jenifer Halpern
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You are f**king lucky you're alive, you piece of s**t! Or, are you?

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InfectedVoice
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Go on my old son, I wish I could buy that gentlemen several rounds of beers, as for the other piece of useless crap, I hope nothing but bad times, threatening old people with a knife in their own home is despicable.

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Shull GaRett
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well well well... it looks like grandpa was in a good mood or it could be worse for the kid ;)

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Chris Malme
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

More sinister than that. The young guy was a next door neighbour, with a habit of having loud late night parties. The night before, the police had been called on a noise complaint, and he thought it was the 73 year old. At 6:30 he was hammering on the front door, and the 73 year old *did* call the police that time. Then at 8am, he comes downstairs to find the guy in his hall with a knife. Deserved everything he got.

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Ivan Hoe
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk? 😁

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Sue Clifford
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love it when karma saves the day. Way to go Mr. Senior Citizen.

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Sarah Nunns
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Where I live sorry to say it would be the old man who was in trouble after that.🤔

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Pascale Pierloot
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Surprise, surprise, the unexpected hits you between the eyes...or close enough, in this case!

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Daniele Ribolla
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

well done, Marine... no weapons, but bare hands! you should have blown all his teeth out to that piece of moron...

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Jo Choto
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Here's to all the solid old people who can still kick ass!

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Silre
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's like when the Night Stalker got his ass kicked by an angry mob!

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glowworm2
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That burglar never knew what hit him--until the 73 year old attacked!

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•LeXi•
Community Member
3 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

How many times this will be shown, this is old news

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If we’re to believe the Buddhist perspective on life, it means that at the end of the day we’re all responsible for what happens to us. However, this doesn’t mean we’re to blame.

For example, we’re not to blame for being born into poverty or for having something awful happen to us. However, we’re responsible for how we deal with the situation, how we respond to things, and what our next steps will be. In other words, we have the power to better our situation and not just be flung about by the winds of fate (or, rather, by our own decisions).

Though some people would argue that morality is something that's learned through experience, Lickerman told Bored Panda that "our sense of morality may actually be neurologically wired into us." However, this doesn't mean that acting morally or responsibly is easy or the go-to decision for most of us.

#4

This Subreddit Never Said Bad Or Good Karma!

This Subreddit Never Said Bad Or Good Karma!

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#5

Got What He Deserved

Got What He Deserved

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Lickerman told Bored Panda that we tend to need some sort of push to make us act responsibly. "People, in general, need a motivation to accept responsibility for their actions," he said. That motivation could be pretty much anything, however, Lickerman suggests that accepting responsibility for our actions "may actually make us stronger, more resilient."

He added that it's difficult to say where the limits of our ability to change ourselves to match our own perceptions are. "Research shows our self-perception is a very powerful influencer of our behavior. Can’t say it’s been quantified. It won’t change immutable characteristics, like personality characteristics, but it will change behaviors," he said.

In his first book, The Undefeated Mind, Lickerman explains how research has begun to show that belief in good (what is just and fair) and evil (what is unjust and unfair) may be "far more universal than previously thought." Psychologist Marc Hauser and his colleagues conducted an internet study with 5,000 subjects in 120 countries, asking them to "render moral judgments and to justify them" in moral scenarios. One of them was the infamous trolley problem where you have to choose between killing one person and five.

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#9

Well This Says Something

Well This Says Something

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EA
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not sure if this is funnier cos of the irony, or when he had to either come out to his congregation to not look like a liar, or apologise to his conversation and look like a total TWAT. Sincerely hope those followers left his church and used the donations to help those in need, rather than pay this guy’s wages.

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Lickerman writes: "The subjects agreed about which actions were moral and which weren’t in most of the scenarios, delineating in the process a set of moral principles that seem to be shared by members of all cultures—namely, that it’s less morally permissible to intentionally harm someone than to allow them to be harmed, that it’s less morally permissible to invent a way to cause harm than to cause harm with an existing threat, and that it’s less morally permissible to cause harm directly than to cause it indirectly. Yet the vast majority of subjects couldn’t name these reasons as their underlying justification for judging the actions in each scenario as they did."

He continues: "When we take moral action, we seem to rely not so much on moral reasoning as on moral intuition and then work backward to rationalize the judgments we’ve already made. (Which isn’t to say our moral intuition can’t and shouldn’t be influenced by reason, but rather that our moral intuition remains the primary driver of our moral decision making.)." However, where our moral intuition comes from is still unclear. However, our conception of good, the desire to provide help and prevent harm might be "rooted [...] in the psychological and perhaps even neurological processes of the human mind."

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#11

Got What They Deserved

Got What They Deserved

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#12

Kid Refuses To Move His Legs, Guy Sits On Them Instead

Kid Refuses To Move His Legs, Guy Sits On Them Instead

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Serial pacifist
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If that's the kids mom to his right, she needs disciplining way more than the kid.

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Meanwhile, becoming responsible for our actions can have the added benefit of making us stronger and more resilient. In his book, Lickerman alludes to a study led by psychologist Kurt Gray where participants would hold up a 5-pound weight, would be given a dollar, and half of then would be given the opportunity to donate it to charity. Donating the money made the participants able to hold up the weight 7 seconds longer than the control group.

"Why? According to Gray, because doing good increases our sense of agency, or potency, a phenomenon he terms moral transformation. (Interestingly, this effect wasn’t seen only with acts of charity but also with acts of villainy.) [...] Which all suggests a reason that action in the moral sphere, whether good or evil, makes us strong: it requires us to be. Or, at least, that’s what we think people who take moral action are: research shows that we’re cognitively biased to 'typecast' people who take such action as resilient—-a bias, it turns out, that affects not only our perception of others but also of ourselves," Lickerman writes.

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"And when we perceive ourselves to be endowed with a particular quality, we have a tendency to conform to that perception. All of which implies that performing or even attempting to perform moral action may increase our resilience because it causes us to perceive ourselves as more resilient. This then makes us act, and therefore feel, as if we were."

#13

Amazing. Impeccable

Amazing. Impeccable

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#14

Instant Karma

Instant Karma

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Dr Nostromo
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I remember this one. If I recall correctly, the clerk wasn't sure whether to report it as they didn't know if a crime had been committed.

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#15

Guy Is A Jerk To A Police Officer In An Unmarked Car

Guy Is A Jerk To A Police Officer In An Unmarked Car

BehindBlueLine Report

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EA
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I LOVE it when a bad driver is caught out. This is a special kind of karma. Overtook me even though I was doing the speed limit? Oh look, speed camera van ahead! What a shaaaame.

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With nearly 1.9 million members and 8.5 years of getting their show on the road, the ‘Instant Karma’ community is one of the leviathans of Reddit. However, don’t think that they’re just about seeing only unethical people get punished. They also urge their members to post examples of folks getting rewarded for good behavior as well.

Examples of delayed karma or scripted events are, obviously, not permitted on this subreddit. The name of the community is pretty self-explanatory. What’s more, r/instantkarma’s moderators have pointed out that they have no tolerance for calls to violence.

Just because somebody deserves to be punished doesn’t mean that redditors should pour hatred and vile language online. Of course, discussions are encouraged, but they have to be civil. Exactly like people ought to be in real life.

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#16

I Don’t Know If It Belongs Here!

I Don’t Know If It Belongs Here!

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#17

Respect Your Mother

Respect Your Mother

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troufaki13
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Children need discipline, I don't understand why parents just give in and don't set boundaries

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#18

Gave Him The Express Shipping Option For Free

Gave Him The Express Shipping Option For Free

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Dr Nostromo
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So glad the driver wasn't charged. As one who was in the delivery business for 30 years, I was in fear of my life on a couple of occasions. Not as easy a job as one my think.

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#22

Mayor Dishes Out Karma On Litterer

Mayor Dishes Out Karma On Litterer

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#24

Reverse Brick

Reverse Brick

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Flowers
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't think I would be able to stop laughing if I saw that in person.

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#25

Oh How The Tables Have Turned

Oh How The Tables Have Turned

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#29

Anti-Gay Politician Caught Fleeing A 25-Man Orgy

Anti-Gay Politician Caught Fleeing A 25-Man Orgy

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#32

Politicians Get A Taste Of Their Legislations

Politicians Get A Taste Of Their Legislations

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#34

This Is Venice City Hall Right After The Approval Of A Climate Change Denial Amendment

This Is Venice City Hall Right After The Approval Of A Climate Change Denial Amendment

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#35

Karma

Karma

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Dre Mosley
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This jerk and his jerk brother tried to capitalize off the pandemic by buying up all the sanitizer supplies they could find to sell at a profit until Amazon and eBay forbid it.

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#37

Order Them To Stop

Order Them To Stop

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James016
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's becoming more and more apparent that lawmakers think that their laws don't apply to them

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#39

Block An Electric Charging Station... Get Towed

Block An Electric Charging Station... Get Towed

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#40

Firefighters Had To Smash The Window Of This Illegally Parked Vehicle On My Street

Firefighters Had To Smash The Window Of This Illegally Parked Vehicle On My Street

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#45

Woman Tried To Acid Attack Her Former Lover

Woman Tried To Acid Attack Her Former Lover

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#46

Guy Parks On Stripes To Avoid Freezing Rain, Happens To Be Under A Leaky Pipe

Guy Parks On Stripes To Avoid Freezing Rain, Happens To Be Under A Leaky Pipe

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Serial pacifist
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I kinda feel sorry for this one. He just wanted to get out of the rain and didn't really obstruct any free passage.

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#47

Just Remember The Quote, “ If I Get Corona, I Get Corona. It’s Not Gonna Stop Me From Partying”

Just Remember The Quote, “ If I Get Corona, I Get Corona. It’s Not Gonna Stop Me From Partying”

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pusheen buttercup
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

it's not even about if you get corona- what about the people around you?!

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#49

Taxi Driver Took A Much Longer Route Than We Agreed To. We Told Him To Stop The Car And Let Us Take Another Taxi. The Police Immediately Saw Him Stop And Fined Him

Taxi Driver Took A Much Longer Route Than We Agreed To. We Told Him To Stop The Car And Let Us Take Another Taxi. The Police Immediately Saw Him Stop And Fined Him

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#50

No Title Needed

No Title Needed

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Note: this post originally had 52 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.