Karma

I once wrote about Joan here, a friend whose New Years Eve date stood her up - no call, nothing, just stood her up.

One night after work several weeks later, a couple of friends and I went to the bar at which he was a bartender. He was way down in the dumps and after a few minutes someone asked him what was bothering him.

"I made a big mistake." That was all he would say, but the word spread like wildfire, and we soon learned that he had been the victim of an old scam. A bar patron, a stranger, had quietly and confidentially offered him a deal: as many color TV's as he would like for $250 apiece. In the late 1970's this was a *major* bargain.

He asked around and five others, including the owners of the bar at which he worked, counted themselves in.

He was given the address of a warehouse and a time (at night) and date to show up. He borrowed a truck and kept the appointment. When he got there he was met by the stranger, who told him "Give me the money and back the truck up to the warehouse."

He turned over the money and the stranger counted it, said "Six TV's," and walked into the warehouse. Bartender backed the truck up and waited.

And waited.

And would be waiting there still if his departure depended on seeing those television sets. The stranger had gone into the back of the warehouse and out the front.

He was now out $250 of his own money and $1,250 he had to repay those he had cut in on the "bargain."

It isn't always true, alas, that what goes around comes around, but karma wasted no time on this one.