We all have those people in our lives who we would probably prefer to have never met; the ones who leave us wondering whether there is truly justice in the world after all. Well, sometimes, justice gets served—even if it takes weeks, months, or years. But as these Redditors know, delayed karma is just as sweet as any other kind.
1. Looking For Love
This jerk who used to torment the heck out of me is now on OkCupid. When I was in seventh grade, he had insisted I was ugly and that I should take my own life. A few weeks ago, before I got into a relationship, he had matched with my profile. He asked if we went to school together and told me I was hot. He didn't recognize me, clearly. It was delicious to know he had been searching for months and no one was biting.
2. Get What Yours
My former bully is now unemployed and his wife just left him for another man. Looks like life is already beating the heck out of him. And he’s not even that old! It would have been nice if he had at least apologized to me for all the pain he put me through, or recognized it. Maybe then, I would have had some sympathy for him.
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3. Food Fight
A girl used to tease me and my brother in elementary and middle school. I HATED her. Well, a lot of time has passed and I now co-own a fairly successful, up-and-coming restaurant. About this time last year, this same girl comes into my place after about ten years of not seeing each other. She recognizes me and strikes up a friendly conversation.
It seemed she had forgotten all about the torment, but I hadn't. She then tells me that she has fallen on hard times and needs a job. My response was a firm NOPE! In retrospect though, I should have hired her and made her life a living nightmare. But whatever, seeing her face when I said no was incredible. That's what you get for spreading nasty rumors about me!
4. Crash Landing
A tormenter who messed with just about everyone I grew up with lost his life in a car wreck soon after he turned 16, while we were all still in high school and his teasing was still fresh in all our minds. I went to his funeral. My friends asked me why, and I said I just wanted to make sure he was really gone. Being able to say that one line practically made all the torment worth it!
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5. Doctor’s Orders
My uncle is a really, really smart guy. The kind of kid who doesn't have to try in school at all. Unfortunately, this made this one other kid, let's call him Bob, see my uncle as a target for bullying. So he got teased from basically sixth grade through high school. However, they parted ways and my uncle went to UCLA and later medical school.
Fast forward thirty something years. My uncle is now 50 years old, and so is his old enemy. He's living in the Bay area and working as a doctor when, one day, who should walk into his office as a patient but his old high school bully, Bob? I was told that they both recognized each other, but Bob kind of blew it off and acted like they were old chums in school. Oh, but it got so much better.
Turns out, Bob came in because he had a little lump in his private area. After examining him, my uncle was the one who got to tell him that he had a venereal disease. Bob apparently reacted by getting angry and saying that he was lying as revenge for all the bullying. Uncle tells him it's for real. Bob gets a second opinion. Second opinion says the same thing.
Bad luck, Bob. To this day, my uncle is still kind of ashamed of himself for finding so much joy in telling him the news.
6. Coming Full Circle
I was one of the least popular kids in my high school, by far. I was too nerdy for even the nerds to hang out with. I spent most of my time with the outcasts. I knew it was bad, but I had a crush on a football player. Can you blame me? What nerd didn't? I decided for once to take charge and do something for myself. I asked him out.
He laughed in my face and told me I was too ugly for anyone to ever date. He called me "crow face," which was a lovely nickname that caught on for a long time. Because of this, I had such awful self-esteem that, well into my 20s, I still couldn't ask anyone out. Even now, I still get too embarrassed sometimes. He ruined my self-esteem completely.
After high school, however, I began doing modeling gigs and cosplay events. It felt great and I looked amazing. Not too long after these shoots started popping up online, that football player messaged me on Facebook telling me how gorgeous I looked and that he should have never said no to me after all. I then calmly rejected him and didn’t hold back in letting him know what I thought of him as a person...
7. Punching Above His Weight
I once got punched in the pregnant stomach by my ex-fiance. For the record, this man was not the father of my baby. I told him that I hoped he’d get hit by a car. Three days later, I found out that he had gotten hit by a truck while riding his bicycle to a friend's house. He survived the accident, but his life was never the same.
He had to have a whole bunch of extensive surgeries to correct his broken bones and save his life. He was uninsured, so he's now stuck with crippling hospital debt from spending so much time in the ICU and having tons of complicated surgery. He will probably not be paying that off any time soon, given the fact that he is not a particularly rich man…
8. It All Came Crashing Down
I was the fat kid in my youth. I still retain some weight, but years of football kind of made it more of a muscle bulk than the butterball I used to be. When I was in junior high, there was this kid named Brendan who was huge. He could bench at least twice what any of the rest of us could and was rumored to have slept with a special needs girl.
Looking back, I think he had been held back a year or two. He used to torment me and my group of misfit friends. I remember he swiped my crutches when I broke my ankle. Well, I was always non-confrontational, but one day my friend Harry, a Japanese immigrant who didn't speak much English, was running on the track with me during gym class.
Brendan ran up, grabbed Harry by the neck, and threw him to the ground. He kept running, but when I helped Harry up, I saw that the skin of his leg had been pretty much shorn off and was bleeding. This angered me. Knowing that Brendan was a faster runner than the both of us, I knew he would lap us on the track. He did as I predicted and laughed as he passed.
When he did, I picked up a rock about the size of my palm and hucked it at his head. It just barely missed, but skimmed his ear. That's when everything went nuts. Brendan lost his mind and started yelling. When I ignored him, he threw me to the ground. I fought like a savage. I dug into his stomach with my nails and bit him on the neck. My friend Isaac saw what was happening and pulled him off of me.
By that point, the teacher saw what was going on. He sent Harry and me to the nurse, and Brendan to the principal. He was expelled after that. I held a deep hatred for him and the things he did to me, but took solace in the fact that I was able to get one good shot in against him. But that's not the karma part. The karma part is this: I never saw him alive again.
Fast forward a couple years to my sophomore year of high school. I liked to read the comic pages of the newspaper in the morning and noticed a headline, "Local area teen loses life in motorcycle accident." I read deeper and my jaw dropped when I read "Brendan Shanks" as the name of the victim. I read on and saw that he had taken his father's motorcycle and was speeding along a residential road when a car didn't see him and pulled out.
He plowed into the side and, with no safety gear or helmet to speak of, he lost his life almost immediately. The article recapped how difficult his life had become, having been expelled from the local high school and going in and out of rehab. I looked at the picture and, amidst the debris that was now the bike, I saw a lone oversized skate shoe, the kind he had worn back in school.
I let out a breath and that was that. I no longer hold any hatred for the kid. He got more than any petty revenge fight could have given him.
9. Her First Choice
At university, a guy fooled around with my girlfriend at a party. A couple weeks later, I met his girlfriend at a party we were both at. When the end of the night came and it was only the three of us left, she pushed him out the door so she could sleep with me instead. She wanted to see me again after that, but I never called her.
10. Standing Up For Yourself
When I was eight years old, my parents moved us out of our hometown to a place with some more room. It wasn’t more than ten minutes out of town, but because of the district boundaries, I had to switch to a new school. The new school was about 1/8th the size of my previous school, and all the other kids had been going to the same school since grade one.
So I was considered “the new kid” to everyone at this school and, for whatever reason, they didn't like me. It started harmlessly enough but, over the next two years, things escalated quickly. From random name-calling to a couple of pushy shovey matches, and eventually to rocks being thrown at me while I was waiting at a bus stop.
My parents had always told me that fighting is not the answer. I stuck to that while keeping my mouth shut about the bullying...until my little sister got hit in the face with a rock and it cut her forehead open. Everything came out after that incident. Meanwhile, the teachers? Didn't do a darn thing. My father finally had enough.
He told me the next time someone messed with me I was supposed to fight back, no matter what. So that started a two-year battle with me going home at least once a week suspended for fighting with someone. I got knocked around a bit at first, but quickly learned I had a natural ability for fighting. But then things got worse.
Instead of fighting one-on-one, it would be three or four of them at a time. Once I got choked out from behind so badly that I had bruises around my neck. I had basically lost consciousness when a parent finally saw and broke it all up. Two kids got a talking to from the authorities for that...and nothing more was done. It took direct threats on my parents’ answering machine to have the main kid expelled from school.
Once that guy got expelled, things calmed down for a while. Well, fast forward three or four years. We are now in high school. The guy from before is basically a burnout within his first year. He doesn't do much, gets suspended all the time, doesn't show up for class. I myself don't touch bad substances, and I do my homework and play sports.
I'm coming into my own in high school, with a good group of new friends. To this day, I don't know what the heck possessed him to do this, but myself and a few friends were outside at a party one day when a baseball bat suddenly comes flying at my head. It hits me in the shoulder and skims the side of my face. I went down to one knee, majorly rattled, but still mostly with it.
I turned around to find that idiot holding the bat and looking at me like, "How the heck are you even still conscious?" At this point, I lose my mind. I come charging at him off the floor with a righteous uppercut that knocks him on his behind. I then jump on him and rain down upwards of 40 or 50 punches while he feebly tries to block. Finally, some people come and haul me off of him.
The final result was interesting. I ended up with a very nasty bruise on the side of my face and shoulder, which hurt quite a bit. I went for X-rays and nothing was broken, luckily. The idiot, on the other hand, ended up with a broken nose, three missing teeth, a fractured jaw, countless cuts, two HUGE black eyes, and ruptured blood packages on the side of his eyes.
The authorities never got involved, and that was the last time he ever messed with me in high school. Him or anyone else for that matter. Fast forward a couple of more years to after we had all graduated. Last I heard, the idiot was hooked on substances, had been selling them, and accidentally sold some to an undercover officer. He is now in the slammer for the next five to ten years. Karma is GREAT!
11. One Moment Changed It All
I was a really small freshman in high school, something like 5'2", and I looked like I was probably around twelve years old. I was always picked on for being the smallest. Eventually, I transferred to a private school. Fast forward three years, and I go to a party with all the kids from my old school. I see one of the kids who always had it out for me because he was bigger at the time.
I'm now 6'1", obviously a lot bigger than before. So he talks some smack to me and I give it right back. He shoves me and, without even thinking, in one punch I knock this jerk out in front of a crowd of more than 80 people. Everyone thought I was some kind of hero, and then I got to party with some of my old friends. Great night.
12. A Taste Of Her Own Medicine
I befriended a larger, red-headed girl when I was in grade three or four. She was new to the school. Everyone had their own friends and no one accepted her. I didn't have many friends, so I gladly took her in. We became best friends. Fast forward to middle school, and she was still large but developed a nice body and wore makeup, so she became popular.
I was still a way too tall and too thin awkward girl with a lisp. Everyone made fun of me...and she joined in with them just so she could be cool. It got worse and worse, until she even started instigating it. She would beat me with other girls and egg my house. Fast forward again to high school, where I filled out a bit and got better friends. Then karma came for her.
About halfway through grade eleven, people started realizing how mean and fake she had become. They quickly started turning on her. She was crying in the hall one day so I went up to her, asked if she was okay, and offered her my phone if she needed to call her mom. She transferred schools for grade twelve because she was being bullied.
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13. Car Trouble
My mom treats me worse than my younger brothers, and it eventually always bites her in the butt. My favorite is the time she saw it coming. See, when we were teenagers, my brothers were always allowed to borrow my mother's car, but I wasn't. My grandmother even warned my mother that she would need me one day and I'd tell her "nope."
Mom blew her off because why would she need me, and it's not in my nature to say no. Fast forward a few years later when I have a car and my mom gets into an accident that leaves her temporarily car-less. Mom never asked to borrow my car even though she wanted to, because she knew I had every right to say no. She admitted as much to me later on.
She eventually apologized to me because she realized she had screwed herself over by not being nicer to me as a teen. The thing is, it's not in my nature to say no. If she had asked me to borrow the car, I almost certainly would have said yes despite the fact that I was upset with her. Nevertheless, her guilt was karma enough as far as I was concerned.
14. Look Who Came Crawling Back
I was always the nerdy picked-on kid in school. Almost ten years after graduating from high school, one of the guys who used to give me problems contacted me on Facebook out of the blue. He apologized for being a jerk, then asked me for advice on going to college for the thing that I have a Bachelor of Sciences in. That one felt good.
15. House Of The Rising Sons
There was a kid at my secondary school who used to mercilessly torment the kids in Learning Support. Being a small school, they converted the old caretaker's house into a safe environment for the people with learning difficulties to take certain lessons and receive support. It allowed a sort of half-mainstream, half-specialist school environment for them.
Anyways, this awful guy dropped out of school at 16 after five or so years of hanging around the back of this house and harassing the kids inside of it. Three years go by, and he ends up being shot. He now has some serious brain damage, as well as memory and dexterity issues. Now, the only place he can retake his unfinished high school exams is the same old house he spent years prowling outside to harass disabled kids.
16. A Family Matter
When I was about eight and my brother was eleven, he got in trouble for punching a kid in the face on the school bus. My brother claims he was defending someone else, but he was banned from the bus for a good long while. He also faced huge repercussions at school, and my mom made him apologize to the kid he had punched.
A couple of months after the incident, the mother of the kid he punched decided to flip the crazy switch and sued my parents for mental anguish, claiming that her son now had crippling emotional problems stemming from the incident. She showed up at board meetings, tried to get my brother expelled, painted a picture of my family as shady, and called my brother a violent delinquent.
My parents ended up escaping the court battle with a little bit of dignity intact, but feeling ostracized in our community. Fast forward: I'm now 27 and my brother is 30. My mom sends a newspaper clipping to him in the mail. When I read it, I grinned from ear to ear. It's the indictment of the crazy mom from our childhood.
It seems she had been embezzling money from her employer for five years, totaling more than $50,000. It may have taken two decades, but she finally got what was coming for her...
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17. The Shape Of You
In elementary school and middle school, I was made fun of by my classmates for being “flat chested.” By my senior year, I had the most developed body in my entire grade. At least so said the general consensus. And none of them got to ever see it up close because screw them! Take that, high school. Delayed karma at its best!
18. Drawing A Grim Picture
True story. I got tormented daily for roughly seven years straight when I was in secondary school. I had kids tell me I should lose my life. I was beaten and emotionally destroyed by everyone who treated me like the most useless, void piece of trash. I didn't feel like I should exist. I sat at home contemplating just ending it a lot.
However, I always loved art, drawing, and writing. During my adolescence, I retreated to the Internet. I didn't want to go to clubs where those people were, yet I still wanted to talk to people. I started posting animated Flash cartoons and comics online for other people to view. Due to the bullying I faced, I developed a rather sad sensibility towards life.
I also developed an ability to quickly come back verbally at anyone who wanted to attack me. It was a defense mechanism for sure, but the tone came through in the animations and comics that I drew. Through all that, I met friends and eventual co-workers. I now draw a cartoon called Cyanide & Happiness. The local papers write about me. It’s a very successful cartoon.
That old school of mine held an assembly in my honor recently. I did not attend, but I was told about it by a friend who now works there. I live overseas now, and pictures of me are run in the local paper every year when I appear at public events. My former tormenters know all about this, and it shows in the way they behave when I visit my hometown.
The particularly bad ones now either stay away from me in bars or try to act like my best friends. Meanwhile, I walk around town beaming. There was one kid in particular who would stand behind me in assembly every morning and headbutt me from behind for a laugh with the others around me. The back of my head was severely bruised for months at a time.
This stunt would often leave me in tears over the physical pain and lack of respect. I would dread going to school every morning. I'd hear them behind me snickering and discussing whether he should do it or not. I couldn't turn around to stop them, because then I'd get yelled at by teachers for not paying attention to the front. I'd have my hand at the back of my head to protect myself.
I'd hear him say "C'mon Dave, put your hand down. You're safe." I'd eventually relent and he'd do it anyway. They'd laugh. I'd turn around and ask him to please not do that, because my head was in so much pain from the trauma he'd dealt it before. He’d say okay, while smirking. I'd turn around, I'd hear them snickering, and he'd do it again.
This went on for around two years. That kid is now a serious substance addict, and doing very poorly in life. A few years ago, after my cartoons started taking off and I was starting to earn a living from it, that guy came up to me in a bar and said mockingly "Still drawing stick figures for a living?" I retorted with "I could buy you." He walked away in silence.
I realize this sounds very obnoxious and, naturally, I was exaggerating a bit, but since we were both 20 years old and I was doing pretty darn well for our age, I felt pretty justified. I was definitely doing better than he was! That one proper, direct moment of "In your face, jerk!" made everything worth it. Feels good, man. Thank you, internet!
19. You’ve Got A Friend In Me
A guy I went to high school with "friended" me on Facebook. He was caught stealing from my house once back then and bragging about it to some of our mutual friends, who he thought wouldn't tell me about it. After the incident, we never spoke again. Although we had the same circle of friends, I kept my distance and he kept his.
Flash forward twenty years to now and we were "friends" on Facebook. I have a pretty cool job in the music industry. I make good money and I get to travel the world. I usually add these former "friends" just so they can see that my life turned out pretty awesome, all while most of them are in our old hometown working crummy jobs.
One day, he updated his Facebook status saying that he was devastated because someone swiped something from his son. Among all the posts from his friends being sorry for him, I wrote back a response that silenced him. I simply wrote something like, "Yeah, it's really terrible when that happens, right? Karma does have its way of evening things out, though."
I immediately started getting messages from mutual friends who remembered the incident in school. They were all congratulating me on this hilarious comment. The guy "unfriended" me after that, to my extreme pleasure. It was such an incredible moment for me and I couldn’t have asked for a better example of slow-acting karma.
20. Movie Star
I had a girl in middle school who used to pick on me constantly. She would jab me with pencils, throw stuff in my hair, and kick the back of my seat in class. Everything you can imagine. I held onto that humiliation for a long time because I never did anything about it. I always resented her and hoped that life would deal her some justice.
Fast forward about seven years. My friend and I were browsing through our local online adult website and who do I find performing on it? My middle school bully. She was now about twenty pounds overweight, and was doing some pretty embarrassing stuff on camera for the whole world to see. It warmed my heart in the best way to see that awful person getting her comeuppance.
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21. Game Over
In eighth grade, this kid threw a wooden block at me. He was probably thinking, "Oh, let's pick on the punk girl, that'll be so funny!" I blacked out for a good ten to fifteen seconds after it clocked me in the head. When I came to, he and his friends were all on the ground laughing at how funny this was. I ended up having to go to urgent care.
His mom was on the school board and had a large role in the financial decisions of the school, so the administration was afraid to punish him and ended up doing nothing. My math teacher was this kid's football coach and made him run extra while everyone else got to take a food and water break, but that was the only justice I got...at the time.
Fast forward two years, and everyone is freaking out that this guy can't play football that year. He ended up spraining his back and breaking a few ribs from an intoxicated escapade into the woods the week before his sophomore year started. The concussion that he sustained from this was severe enough that a second concussion could have caused serious mental damage.
As a result, he was no longer able to play football and had to quit the game he loved more than anything in the world. Considering there were still many people at the school who had witnessed his initial attack on me with the wooden block and remembered it, it felt like a lot of people recognized the karma he had just endured.
22. Strictly Business
My girlfriend and I worked at the same place, but I was in a different department and different level than her, so we had no real interaction. One day, she came home and told me about how she had laughed in her new boss’s face when he started trying to hit on her. I nearly choked when she told me his name. He was my childhood bully. Warm fuzzies right there!
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23. Nice Gals Finish First
This is less of a "bully got justice" story and more of a "nice person gets what they deserve" story. There was this girl in high school who I was sort of friends with. I was in the nerd group and taking lots of AP and college prep courses, while she was in the more basic courses. So we really only saw each other occasionally.
She got picked on by a lot of the "cool" kids, and she had a pretty awful home life, too. By senior year, I think her lousy parents had either kicked her out or she had decided to leave them. Once I went to college, I lost track of her. She friended me on Facebook a few years ago. By now, all the "cool" kids who picked on her are fat, saddled with kids, and working at boring jobs.
This may be what they wanted in life, but I'll admit that to me their lives seem pretty boring. She, on the other hand, is living it up in New York City, making fabulous art for a living. She does glassblowing, metalwork, photography, and film, and has even worked with some famous actors. She also has tons of awesome artsy buddies, and appears to be having the time of her life. She totally deserves it.
24. Mind Games
I had a guy who used to pick on me for no reason in high school. He was a bit bigger and older, and was also a wrestler. We tussled once when I had had enough of his garbage, but the fight got broken up by a group of teachers before it could get too far. The guy just didn't like me and was relentless in his tormenting. Honestly, he scared me.
When I was 37 years old, I got divorced and took up Muay Thai. Over the course of the next two years, I got myself into ridiculously good shape. I was 5'11 and 190 lbs of hard muscle, with lots of martial skills. I rented out a house that I owned to a single mom with the same last name as the dude who had tormented me. Didn't think much of it at the time.
A couple of months later, though, I was visiting her to take care of a few maintenance issues at the house. When I walked up to the door, my jaw dropped. He opened it. I stared at him for a full minute. He was much smaller than I had remembered. In fact, he was struggling with addiction. The look on his face was priceless when he realized who I was.
It was his sister who had rented from me. Well, he recognized me and knew immediately that I could easily wipe my butt with him. You could feel the look of fear, at least I could, because that dude used to scare the heck out of me all the time. He meekly held out his hand for a handshake. I took it, almost crushed it, then just gave him a big bear hug and a little noogie.
It was a guy's way of letting him off the hook, at least for now. He was so confused and scared of what I could be planning to do to him or his sister. I think he would have rather had his butt kicked than have to live with that fear and insecurity. But the beauty is that I don’t even feel that I have to take revenge. Sometimes, the best revenge is just landing on your feet.
25. The Punishment Fits The Sin
I got made fun of in high school for being gay. Some kid would always make these nasty comments, and one night he embarrassed me in front of the whole school. I should note that I wasn't the only one he treated this way, and that this had been going on for about two years. Nevertheless, I got my revenge one night a few years later.
He was extremely intoxicated at a party one night and agreed to sleep with me. I then made sure to tell everyone at school about it...
26. The Emperor's New Clothes
When I was in the seventh grade, I was a pretty awkward child. I was overweight, liked to read much more than the average seventh grader, and did not exactly enjoy changing my clothes on a very frequent basis. My school being the nice one that it was, there weren't any bullies, save for one boy. That one boy, however, made sure to always make up for what the school was missing...
This kid would laugh at me non-stop whenever he saw me. He would make fun of everything about me, from my body to my clothes to my books. And none of the other kids would ever stop him. The teachers would notice and say something every once in a while, but no real action was ever taken. I was on my own for the most part while I was at that school.
Fast forward five years. I am now going into my senior year of high school. I am 6'4", very good at sports, have a girlfriend, and now change my clothes every day. I still read a ton, though. That other kid? He's now 5'7", fat, and neglects to wash his hair. I don't laugh at him, but I certainly don't go out of my way to be nice to him, either. Five years may not be that long, but karma is indeed a real thing.
27. School’s Out Forever
I had a 1.8 GPA in high school, and my guidance counselor sarcastically told me, "You can still potentially be successful, you'll just never be able to become a doctor or a lawyer." Seven years later, I went to law school and graduated. I made a point of ensuring that this woman heard about it when the timing was right. It felt pretty darn good!
28. Facebook Tells No Lies
A few months ago, I looked up an old childhood tormentor on Facebook out of curiosity. I saw that he is now fat, ugly, and looks quite lonely. As cruel as this sounds, I actually laughed out loud. Karma probably kicked in earlier, but it was many years in between his awful ways and him now. I take solace in knowing that the person who caused my suffering did not go unpunished.
29. No Mercy
When I was in seventh grade, I was picked on mercilessly by these three girls. And I mean mercilessly. They would tease me, hit me, throw gum in my hair, whatever you can dream of. It made my life a living nightmare. Fast forward five years: One's pregnant, one just had her second child at 17, and one is behind bars on a serious charge. I can't help but laugh. Feels good.
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30. Screaming For Ice Cream
When I was about twelve, my older sister began dating this guy down the street who teased me a lot. I absolutely couldn't stand this jerk, but was always afraid to stand up to him because he was older, bigger, and stronger than me. On a hot summer day, I came into the house to find my sister and the guy on the couch. I asked them if they wanted any ice cream while I was up.
They both said yes, so I scooped them out some vanilla ice cream into two separate bowls. Before I scooped his ice cream, I rubbed the spoon all over my sweaty body and literally scooped sweat off from wherever I could find it. I then proceeded to scoop his ice cream for him into his bowl. I gave them their respective bowls, making sure I put the right spoon with his bowl, and left the room with the biggest grin on my face. Sometimes revenge truly is a dish best served cold.
31. Shop Around
A few years back, I went home to visit my mother. She asked me to go to the convenience store to pick up some milk. While I'm there, I see one of the local popular chicks from high school behind the counter. I was, of course, a nerd in high school and, while she knew me, she would never have talked to me back then. She asked me how I was doing nowadays. I said "Well, I live in Dallas and work at Microsoft. How are you?" Best feeling ever.
32. A Perfect Example Of Projection
I knew an idiot back in middle school who called me a "filthy little loser who no one will ever want," just because I did some things differently than she did. Several years later, she found me on Facebook, and I friended her for God-knows-what reason. I learned that at age 22, she is a high school dropout and has two kids from two different fathers.
33. Indoor Voices
The hotel where I work is a small one which is basically an easy and cheap taxi ride away from town. We are also local to a few bars and other party places, so we tend to be rather busy on weekends. As most hotel workers will know, some weekend shifts are nice and easy. But when you get that group that causes problems, it makes your life very difficult.
This one evening, I had a rather large group of "young adults" staying with us. Earlier, they all came in and, to my surprise, were quiet. Well, almost all of them were. One woman came in being louder than an air raid siren. She and her boyfriend came over to me and asked me for some more towels. I went to get them and they both came with me to the linen room to grab them.
While they're there, the woman was talking to the guy louder than she should have been. She didn't seem intoxicated, but holy heck someone never taught her how to use her indoor voice. I gave them the towels and just politely asked her to keep her voice down. She looked at me, confused, and then ripped into me for no reason, coming out with some hurtful comments before storming off.
The guy looked at me and apologized before following her away. Now, we do hourly walks around the building to make sure it's quiet and, thankfully, we were not fully booked that night. Otherwise, we would be getting stupid amounts of noise complaints in the morning. A few doors down from this couple’s rooms are some stairs, which I pass through on my way back to reception.
As I entered the stairwell, I could hear them talking while walking down the stairs. When I say them, I mean her. I kind of stood still a few doors down listening to her. I heard her whining to this guy about his ex, saying "I bet she felt better than me" and then shouting “Don't call me a psycho!” From what I could understand, he had cheated on her with his ex and she had just found out right that minute.
He accused her of overreacting, and she didn't take it well. I wanted to listen to more, but I heard a door opening from the other side of the hall. Someone from their group walked by, so I acted like I was just walking back to reception from the stairs. I just found it funny how she ripped into me for doing my job and then got some karma back the same night.
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34. End Of The Road
There was this one individual who always relentlessly tormented me back when I was in high school. A little while after we had all grown up and graduated, I heard from a mutual acquaintance that he had been run over by a motorcycle near my home. He did not survive the incident. No, I wasn't the one driving the motorcycle...
35. Copy Cat
To the old high school “friend” of mine who always secretly looked at my tests and copied my answers to get an A. Don’t think you got away with that without me noticing. I knew all about it. But at the end of the day, I got all of the scholarships, and you didn't. That’s some delayed karma for you if I’ve ever seen it! Have fun!
36. He Shoots, He Scores
When I was a lot younger, I lived in a small town. The people there were awfully lousy. I got picked on a LOT, especially since I didn't play hockey. This was small town Canada. You either play hockey or you wish you were never born. Instead, I was in Ukrainian Dancing. There were eight guys and eight girls in my group, and THEY all picked on me, too.
One guy in particular would make fun of me and call me names all the time. He also tried to incite others to harm me. I hated that guy, and I will always hate him. The worst incident was when he convinced everyone to bully me for being gay. But delayed karma is incredible. You will never believe what happened in the end...
A few years ago, I heard that he came out of the closet. That’s right, the guy who tormented me for being gay was secretly gay himself.
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37. Reading Between The Lines
A boy at school was an absolute jerk to me and my group of friends. I was raised as a fairly introverted kid, and thus gravitated to like-minded people. He could basically smell the pacifism on us and exploited it to no end. He kicked the heck out of us at every chance he got. He humiliated us in front of the class, basically assigning us to the lowest social rungs for most of our schooling year.
The relentless intimidation and thuggery reduced me to start hiding in my shell. I would prefer to read in the library than play or eat during lunch, lest his roaming bring us into contact again. Without a word of a lie, I read over 300 novels by the time I had finished school and had sparked a life-long obsession with literature.
Moving out to university led me to becoming a much more confident person, and I slowly got over some of my old social issues. Fast forward to some eight years after school. One Friday afternoon, the old bully walked into my work looking for something we sell. Due to the nature of the business, I was able to infer a lot about how his life had gone since we last spoke.
Since leaving school, he had been caught stealing a car, gone to a juvenile detention center, got busted for substance possession, and had been living at no fixed address. Before you judge too quickly, we had been at a fairly expensive private school, so he wasn’t exactly a “down on his luck” type to begin with. He just never stopped making bad decisions despite the opportunities he had.
I projected an outwardly professional demeanor, politely denied him service, and sent him dejectedly on his way. I was required to deny him by our store policy, and had no actual authority over the decision, but it still felt good to do. Internally, I was completely glad and gleeful. But that's not even the best part. Believe it or not, he didn’t even recognize me!
He looked at the man serving him, and only saw a man. I had grown and changed so much, and he had stayed exactly the same. Looking back, it may be bad karma for me to take pleasure in this. However, it gives me hope that sometimes the bad guy loses in real life. I suffered a horrible school and social life for eight years because of him, and I do not regret feeling happy at his demise.
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38. Dynamic Duo
When I was in seventh grade, two eighth grade girls always made fun of me and were generally really mean to me. One of them moved away, and I never saw her again. But when the other graduated middle school that year, I bought her a box of chocolates to show her that I was the bigger person. She cried her eyes out and apologized for being a jerk.
39. Making Up For Lost Time
Growing up with hatred based on your background definitely isn't the easiest thing in the world. Aside from being bullied yourself, you have to cope with the fact that your siblings and friends deal with the same garbage. You don't deserve it, nobody deserves it. But it exists. That is why standing up to my bully in Grade 9 of high school was one of the greatest moments of my life.
All I remember was a snarky remark from him. "Shut up, you're (insert my background), you don't have the right to speak!" That’s when I lost it. I mostly remember grabbing him by the shirt and then throwing him against a wall. Once he was pinned against the wall, I alternated between punching his face and making sure he didn’t move.
The details are mostly lost to me now, but I definitely remember winning that fight. And it wasn’t even close. I was suspended from school for the rest of the day. He was suspended for three days due to the terrible nature of his remark. It was incredible. And also possibly one of the greatest turning points of my entire life.
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40. Identity Crisis
One day, I tried to think of the names and faces of the kids who treated me like trash in middle school. But then I realized that I couldn't. They were awful to me simply because I was quiet and they could get away with it, but I don't even remember them. That’s how insignificant they all are. They did all that to me and I don’t even remember their names.
Meanwhile, I now have a good job, a good education, amazing friends, and the knowledge that I will never let myself be someone who preys on others because they seem weak. Right now, coming to the realization that those people just don't matter anymore and knowing that I can have a great life despite them is the best revenge I could have hoped for.
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41. Fine Dining
A kid I met in sixth grade became that kind of "your friend but secretly your enemy" type with me. I knew he was going to fail sixth grade and get held back. On the inside, I hoped this would be the case. My prediction came true. I saw him a couple of times in the hall after that, but I haven't really heard from him since. He used to talk about how he wouldn't mind ending up in the slammer, because you get lots of coleslaw there and he likes coleslaw. Hopefully his wish came true…
42. Times Have Changed
Tonight, a guy walks into my family's convenience store to buy a pack of smokes. I know him from my days growing up here, and he and his younger brother used to give me a hard time. They were real bullies, hateful types who encouraged others to pick on me and even to turn violent against me. I hated him and his family for ruining a part of my childhood.
He was unusually friendly tonight, smiling at me and cracking cheesy jokes that I smiled politely at but didn't really respond to. He counted his money with his damaged hand, which had been partially blown in half by fireworks a few years ago. I gave him his items and his change, said thanks, and went about my business. But that's where it all changed.
Before leaving, he stops, hesitates for a moment, and turns around to ask me if there are any job openings at the store. While I had heard him correctly, it was almost as if the words didn't register in my mind, so I asked him to repeat himself. He asks again, “You wouldn't happen to have any jobs available, would you?”
I explain that we're sufficiently staffed at the moment, and that with my sister and me around for the summer, we wouldn't be needing anyone else to fill in the hours. I told him to ask again in the Fall, when I'd return to university. He said that it was okay, but that he needed something now....because his wife had just left him.
He said thanks anyways and walked out. Memories of him being a jerk flashed around in my head, and through these a clearer picture began to form. When he had just graduated high school, his parents broke up in a massive way, leaving a fractured home for his younger siblings to grow up in. Sometime in his life, he experienced his hand being blown apart by an explosive.
He had amounted to very little, and his marriage was falling apart. And now, he had come asking for a job from the local kid he used to make fun of and claim superiority over based on my mixed-race background. Realizing this didn't feel good. I should have enjoyed it, but I didn't. While I don't feel bad for him, not in the slightest, I don't feel like any kind of justice was served.
If the universe is truly neutral toward what is right and wrong, then this was just the way that life played out for someone who did a lot of harm to people in his time. He could have been rich, he could have been powerful, he could have kept the use of both of his hands. But it didn't turn out that way. Karma had nothing to do with it, there was no justice.
What occurred to me is that I'm not at all connected to this place anymore, this village where I grew up, not even to the pain and harsh memories that stayed with me for years. I've become my own person, capable of, at least on some level, sympathizing even with the scum of the universe that tormented my childhood. I have also all but forgotten about the painful memories that followed me well into my twenties as echoes from the past.
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43. Financial Freedom
In high school, most of my friends insisted on going to big, fancy four-year colleges and bragging about it to my face. They all went off, forgot about me, drank themselves silly, and made plenty of friends while I spent several years at home, alone, working and going to community college. All they cared about was the prestige of telling people where they went to school.
Now, five years later, we're all living with our parents, working lousy jobs, and trying to find any decent work we can. The only difference is that I don't have $80k in student debt. Feels great, even when my situation isn't so desirable. Was it worth it, friends? In a few years, I’m going to reap the rewards of my hard work while you are all still paying back the money you owe.
44. How Ya Like Me Now?
The greatest delayed karma that I have ever experienced is watching all of the bros from my high school get trapped in dead-end lives with stupid kids and ugly spouses before they hit 25. These are all the same people who used to act like they were better than everyone else and treated everyone like trash. Seeing them fail is awesome, I can't lie.
45. I’m Moving On
In middle school, this older boy used to make me feel stupid all the time. Then, I grew up to be attractive and have a good job. Clearly, I was not as stupid as he made me think I was. Meanwhile, he got married and had kids. We are both happy now and living our own separate lives. The greatest delayed karma is realizing that I don't care at all. What he did to me had no impact on my life in the long term, despite how hard he tried to hurt me.
46. Brotherly Hatred
I'll keep this short. My brother took advantage of me when I was young. He ran away from home eventually and my family lost all contact with him. A couple of years ago, I learned that my other brother had discovered his whereabouts. It turns out he broke his back in a freak accident and can no longer walk. Take that, jerk!
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47. It All Evens Out
I am 34 years old, so I've seen people from my old school grow up and I have seen the results of their lives. Generally speaking, the people who were kind, hard-working, and friendly as kids all have succeeded as adults. Those that were just jerk types all seem to now have crummy lives. Delayed karma is real. Everyone gets what they deserve eventually.
48. The Name Of The Game
When Grand Theft Auto 4 came out, I traded in about twelve of my games to get it. Those twelve were basically my entire game collection. I did it because I really wanted the new game and couldn't afford to just buy it. Well, maybe three weeks after getting it, it goes missing. Turned out my roommate's friend had swiped it, presumably to buy substances. About a year later, he lost his life to a substance overdose.
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49. Room Service
For a full year, my college roommate secretly slept with my boyfriend while I was at class. I routinely took more than a full course load and was in math and science classes or study groups every morning. One day, I walked in to see a horrifying sight. They were just fully in the act after I came back early from a cancelled class.
I moved out. I was more angry at her than heartbroken. I also lost most of my friends through the breakup, and they stuck together for a good while. Fast forward five years later. Those two throw a crazy expensive engagement party at the guy's parents' beach house, which was attended by some still-mutual friends who told me everything.
At the party, she caught him sleeping with one of the waitresses from the catering company in a bathroom. They still got married. I feel a little bad for her despite the karma balance. She feels like she can't do better than being with a cheater.
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50. Self-Defense
A few years back, I was the assistant manager at my karate studio. It was a slow, quiet day when in walked Paul, my old bully from public school. I wasn't sure it was him at first. It had been a long time, and it was hard to tell. I didn't say anything. Paul was interested in joining the dojo, so I showed him around, discussed pricing, etc.
At the end of the tour, Paul decided to join our dojo. We sat down in the office and he filled out the paperwork. When he wrote his name out on the application, I knew for sure that this was, indeed, my old enemy. The guy who used to torment me every single weekday. Who made me kneel in dog poop. That's when I came up with an ingenious plan.
I still didn't say anything until after he had pre-paid me for an entire year's membership. As I walked him to the door, I smiled. "I'm really looking forward to training with you," I said. "Thanks, me too," Paul said. I then said: "You don't recognize me, do you?" He replied: "No, should I?" I said: "Yes. We went to school together, grades three through eight. You bullied me every day, and made my life miserable. Can't wait to see you in class."
Paul went white, and walked out without saying another word. He never walked back in. He willingly threw away a year's membership payment, almost $500, rather than have to be in the same class with me. That was one of the single greatest moments of my life. Karma is a beautiful thing, even if it happens many years down the road.
Sources: Reddit,
