“He Lost His Leg”: 33 Instant Karma Moments Where People Got Exactly What They Deserved
Swift, satisfying, and sometimes hilarious... Unlike the slow burn that arrives years later, instant karma is the same-day delivery guy who swoops in suddenly with an immediate set of consequences. The cosmic comedy show where the punchline lands perfectly.
Someone litters? A gust of wind blows the trash straight back into their face. Karen cuts in front of you in traffic? Moments later, her car breaks down. It’s like the universe saying, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this!”
The beauty of instant karma is in the timing, and it’s often a joy to watch it unfold. It restores a tiny bit of balance in a world that can seem cruel and unfair at the best of times. And it proves that sometimes, when really necessary, Lady Justice doesn't procrastinate.
Someone asked, "What’s the best case of Instant Karma you’ve witnessed?" and netizens didn't hold back. They shared the moments etched in their memories of people getting what they deserve, right when they least expected it. From petty annoyances to truly bad behavior, many of the stories serve as reminders that what goes around really does come back around. Sometimes faster than you can say "justice served!"
Bored Panda has put together a list of the best responses for you to scroll through while you wait for karma to sneak up on that person who did you wrong. We also unpack the true meaning of the word. You'll find that info between the images.
#1
One time I went to a museum/showroom and me and my mother went to go get food. I went to grab and reserve a table. So I sat down while my mom went to go get some food. Then this one guy comes and starts trying to take the other chair at table.
So I tell him "that there's someone sitting there", but he doesn't listen and takes it away anyway. At the time I was still to little to really do anything about it. So I go and grab a chair from a unoccupied table. Then I see the guy sit down in the chair with his food. When the guy sat down. The chair broke from under him. Making him fall on is back. Also spilling his food over himself.
Image credits: Itzizium
#2
Pedestrian crossing the street. Everyone stops for him except one guy in the last lane blasts his horn and blows through the intersection nearly running the pedestrian over. There was an unmarked police car right behind him that immediately pulled him over.
Image credits: Hash43
#3
Two of my friends and I were playing monopoly sometime around freshman year of high school. One of my friends owned all the railroads, meaning any player who landed on a railroad would pay him 200.
The entire game felt like I was just moving my token from railroad to railroad, paying my friend each time, having no opportunity to buy properties, and getting super frustrated (in reality it was probably only two or three times).
On my next roll, I quickly calculate which space I was going to land on as I start to move my token, and lo and behold, I was going to land on another railroad. I gracefully slide (cheat) passed the railroad and plop my piece on the next space, Chance.
Chance card read something as follows: "Move token to nearest railroad. Pay owner twice the amount."
I lost it.
Image credits: tuesday_guy
#4
This happened to me yesterday! There was this cute flamingo onesie pajamas that I had my eye on for weeks but the only sizes were extra small and small. They run small, so I needed an extra large. I went to the store yesterday and this lady managed to find an extra large, but was lamenting that it was too big and needed a large. I dug through the racks and found a large and chased after her so I could give it to her. She was so happy. I walked away afterwards feeling sad that I couldn’t find the onesie in my size, but then the lady came up to me, saying she was looking for me and gave me the extra large since now she had the large onesie she wanted. I couldn’t believe it! So we said thank you to each other and went on our way. The onesie is adorable and so warm. It was on sale, too!
Image credits: degrassibabetjk
#5
A few years back, I was traveling on the interstate to meet some friends who attended a different college than I did for a weekend.
On the way there, I’m in the right hand lane, minding my own business, when a car tries to cut me off. No big deal right? Except she ended up clipping my bumper and running me off the road, with her driving speeds of ~80-85mph. Other driver keeps on going along her merry way, while I’m on the shoulder attempting to contact the local police to report an accident.
5 minutes later, a state trooper pulls up behind me and asks what happened. I explain the situation, describe the other vehicle, including a partial license plate number, and he asked if my car was still drivable. After confirming that it was, he said, “just follow me up to this next exit - I got a call about a driver who is out of gas and needs assistance.”
We pull up to the next exit just shy of a gas station. Sure enough, it was the girl who was the other party in my hit and run. She tried to deny anything occurred, until the trooper looked at my front bumper damage, and her back end damage, assessed the paint colors matched, etc. Bonus is that her plate had the partial information I had gathered as she sped away.
Turns out, girl has no insurance and no license. Gets hauled off to jail on a hit-and-run, all because she couldn’t slow down and be a decent driver.
Image credits: SpitFyre8513
#6
One time I smiled at someone walking by, then I saw them smile at somebody, who then smiled at somebody else. It was like a happy karma train.
poopellar:
Some say the smile train is still going on.
Image credits: I_am_toasted
#7
I just walked into a crowded bar with my friend back when we were in our early 20’s. Make our way around the entrance handrails and bam this dude smashes his shoulder into mine knocking me back. Thinking it was just an accident caused by a crowded bar I start to recover and this dude throws his shoulder into me again. Before I can even begin to react to the second more aggressive hit, this monstrosity of a bouncer watching the whole things go down, picks the guy up and literally throws him out the exit doors.
It all happened in a matter of 5 seconds. I don’t think any other person in that bar, nor my friend, even saw it go down.
Image credits: Beezy8d5
#8
I passed a slow car on a back road who was going too slow. This lady then proceeded to ride behind all the way to my house, cuts me off at the last second which caused me to hit her. Called the cops all the while this crazy is in my face talking about beating me up. When the cop shows up he confirms there’s no damage to her car. He takes our licenses and when he hands mine back he tells me she has a warrant for her arrest. I waved at her as she got arrested lol.
Image credits: LapsoApso
#9
A story I learned about recently.
When I was still in architecture school, a professor gave his class an exercice. One student came up with a project with a lot of ramps for disabled people. The professor started laughing and asked her to remove them because no one will use them. A month After or so, he lost his leg.
Image credits: rimologie
#10
Was working at a trampoline park which had two different dodge ball areas. One for kids 12 and under, another for 13 and up. Annoying little kid kept trying to sneak into the 13 and up game, running around, breaking rules, and basically being a pain. We couldn't really do much about it.
Eventually I just let him sneak on and not a moment later he got smacked beautifully in the face with a rubber ball. Actually sent him flying back a couple feet.
He wasn't so keen to play after that.
Image credits: to_the_tenth_power
#11
I saw these two bicycle cops randomly come over and harass an obvious homeless person, who I might add wasn’t begging, or in anyone’s way, just sitting in the sun minding his business. They were really giving him a hard time, to the point where I almost walked over to ask what was going on. I’m not sure if they realized people were watching/giving them dirty looks or realized he wasn’t causing any trouble but they decided to back off. But when they decided to leave, the one cop got back on his bike and must of miss stepped and went right over top of his handle bars and landed face first in the pavement. He was fine but it was hilarious. And of course the homeless person asked if he was alright.
Image credits: jewatt
#12
Maybe not instant but close enough.
Working as a medic a long time ago and get called for a leg injury at a friday night soccer game. We get there and determine it's most likely a torn ACL, painful but basically any hospital can handle and it's not really a priority. So we explain to the patient it will pry be faster and a lot cheaper if she just wants to have someone else drive her to the hospital that's literally around the block.
Here comes the white knight into our story. This guy oozed friend zone, explained how he's a medical student going for his doctorate and she needs to go to the local trauma center, which is a good 30 min drive. We explain no, we'll go to the local they can handle it, however the patient pulls the nastiest look at us and says her friend knows more than my partner and I because he's actually studying medicine and we're just ambulance drivers.
My partner and I give each other that look. An ACL tear isn't priority for trauma center, especially on a friday night. Drunk driving crashes and gun shot wounds are gonna be taking up the ER there. We oblige the the request with documented protest.
The friend rides with us, we make him ride up front. He explains how the surgeon there is his friend and she'll get seen right away. We roll in and sure enough there's about a dozen ambulance crews trying to unload patients in much worse cases than ours.
We get to triage after about 15 mins, and the Rsn tells us to put her in the waiting room, she starts crying. Cherry on top she asks her friend to do something, he calls his "buddy" surgeon down. Turns out not his buddy but one of his teachers who proceeds to yell at him about thinking that an ACL tear needs to come to a trauma center.
She could have been in and out the hospital in an hour if she had listened to us.
Image credits: Rectorol
#13
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.
vfettke:
You should've walked up and acted like he pushed you out of the way of the oncoming door and said "Wow, you saved my life! What a hero!"
Image credits: thegreatestsnowman1
#14
I was driving on the freeway one day and needed to get over. I checked to make sure it was clear, signaled and changed lanes. I didn't realize there was an escalade coming up behind at over 100 mph in that lane. (He was going so fast that the lane looked clear when I checked 1 second ago.)
The escalade decided to teach me a lesson by acting like it wasn't going to stop and plow into me. There were now cars on both sides of me so I couldn't swerve out of the way. So the escalade screams up until last possible second and then hits the brakes hard so he matches my speed about a foot away from my bumper. While this is happening I'm freaking out and wobbling the car cause I think I'm going to get creamed.
The cop that was one lane over and 2 cars back immediately flipped on his lights and pulled them over. That was quite a roller coaster ride of emotions for me.
Image credits: chirsmitch
#15
About a year ago, I was visiting a tourist town in my state. A man playing a guitar and singing was in the middle of of the side street (pedestrian only area) and was playing really well. He had a hat with plenty of $1's, $5's, & $10 USD notes. I sat down and enjoyed his music while waiting for my mother to come out of the shop she was in.
My mom came out and it was time to go so I politely tipped the man for his service. It just so happened to be my last $2. I (28F at the time) had recently moved to this state and had nothing but my clothes on my back after leaving a bad situation.
As my mother and I rounded the corner to a back alley shortcut to our vehicle, I saw a piece of paper on the ground. I picked it up and it was a $20 note. Absolutely no one was around for me to find the person who may have dropped it. Had that been the case I would have honestly inquired.
I put the bill in my pocket and proceeded to the car. Once my mother and I returned to her house, I pulled the bill out of my pocket and unfolded it. To my surprise, it was 2 $20 bills stuck together. Karma?...... I should think so!
Image credits: ANValentine89
#16
In high school had a kid punch me for like no reason. I would have punched him back but the principal AND the resource officer had literally just walked around the corner and saw it.
They walk up and ask the other kids.
"Did Thelightningcount1 provoke Bob here?"
Kids shook their heads.
"Did Thelightningcount1 strike Bob before just now?"
Kids shook their heads. Resource officer cuffed Bob and took him to the office. He was a multiple offender and this was the last straw.
He was expelled and we never saw him again.
Image credits: TheLightningCount1
#17
Was walking down the street and a Porsche gunned it to make a left turn in front of me at the entrance of a gas station. He missed hitting me by about a foot. He cut it too close and hit the curb and tore his front bumper off.
Image credits: Mrofcourse
#18
When I was a little kid, I went to the local "hangout" they specially build for kids and teenagers. I went to the skatepark. Some 12 y/o kid came up to me and immediately started calling me names and pushing me around (I was like 7, or something). Three older boys came running towards us and one of them slapped the bully right in his face. "We don't bully small kids here!".
Image credits: anon
#19
A lifted pick up truck with one of those train horns was driving aggressively through morning work traffic and honking at people who got in his way. He did it to an unmarked sheriff (or trooper...some kind of law enforcement) and promptly got pulled over.
Image credits: packpeach
#20
So it's winter and everything is covered in snow. I'm going home from a friends place and I see my shoe lace is untied. I grab a nearby tree so I can maintain my balance while I put the shoe lace inside my shoe and immediately after grabbing a tree a ton of snow falls on my head. A woman that was walking behind me starts laughing at my and right after she walks by me she slipped on the ice and fell down. I had a good laugh of revenge.
Image credits: anon
#21
Long stretch of highway at night. I had actually gotten a ticket for speeding there a couple months prior; it's a notorious speeding trap. Well on *this* night, it was down to a single lane because of construction (also means the speeding fines are increased). So it says 45 mph and that's what I'm doing. At some point a big truck catches up to me and starts tailgating. Honks a few times, flashes his brights a few times, but I don't budge from the speed limit because, hey, I'm actually doing him a favor. So he never stops tailgating me for the rest of the one-lane experience. But eventually the other lane opens up. And as soon as it does, big ol' Truck absolutely *zooms* around me getting to at least 60 before he's even fully passed me. There was a cop sitting at that exact location and he got pulled over immediately.
Image credits: anon
#22
I was waiting tables at a restaurant in Texas and these three obnoxious women were complaining about a free appetizer they’d gotten plus the drinks, etc. Just complaining on and on. I didn’t bother discounting anything else for them because their complaints weren’t really founded and they were rude.
They stiffed me on the tip (heh) and, to add insult to injury, dumped what little was left in their drinks and salsa cups, chips, quest, etc alllll over the table. It was a pretty big mess, and would take several towels to soak up. Nice. I saw the mess and walked away, only to see one of them come back in, rush over the table and pick up her phone. A phone she definitely did not have in a waterproof case. She wiped it on her pants so I know it got all wet.
I didn’t mind cleaning up after them so much after that. I just wish I had found the phone first. I would have made her pick it up to get it back.
Image credits: acenarteco
#23
I was at a petting zoo with my cousin and there was this angry lookin guy who started yelling at him for being an annoying little kid. The moment he turned away from us he came face to face with a goat that immediately tore a huge rip in his shirt with its teeth.
#24
Driving in the slow lane. Guy rushes up to my bumper and starts tailgating me. Honked his horn and flashed his lights. When I didn't move he went around me. Once he passed my car, so did a state trooper with his lights on.
Another time, when driving to work, car starts tailgating me, but doing the 'speed up-slow down' thing. I look in my rear-view mirror and see a girl in the passenger seat yell at him. The car speeds up to my bumper one more time. I look in my rear-view getting ready to flip him off, then I see the girl slap the guy driving. He backed off and stopped tailgating me.
#25
Was working, driving in the most right lane on our way to pick up a patient, when a brand new calaway 757 Corvette comes flying behind us. Apparently we weren't going fast enough, so the guy swerves around us, has the top down wearing a fedora, then swerves back into the right lane and decided in the last minute he wants some popeyes and attempts to turn into the parking lot. I think he watched too much Tokyo drift and thought he could handle, but the wheels locked and he went straight for some big Boulder and a wall, completely wrecking this amazing car. There was a cop right at the popeyes saw the whole thing. The best part is the car had paper plates from that same day. Literally probably had the car for less than an hour considering it was barely 10 in the morning.
#26
Cyclist flipped me off because I wasn't sharing the road enough, despite the cycling lane to his right, and in doing so, rides into a pothole and bent his front wheel.
Image credits: SoreWristed
#27
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.
Image credits: Squid-In-The-Sky
#28
I am jumpy and frighten easily, and as a result my wife enjoys to jump out and scare me.
So earlier this week I am getting a cup of water and she decides to scare me again. Not expecting her at all I end up jumping so much I throw my water at her, and she gets soaked.
#29
In highschool a guy cut in front of me and said "out of my way!"
He then proceeded to trip on the stairs.
#30
I was the 2nd car at a red light and when the light turned green the 1st car didn't move for at least 10 seconds and I could tell they were on their phone so I honked my horn really quick. Turns out the car next to him was a cop and they noticed he was on his phone too and pulled him over right away.
#31
It was winter time and it was a bit icy. My SO at the time was telling me to be careful not to fall but in a very mean and rude way (You never look at where your going... You always fall...You have no coordination... ); 30 seconds later, he fell in front of a lot of people.
I laugh..., he was mad. :).
#32
First day of school, starting first grade, and I was wearing my uniform for the first time. Everything fitted me, except my shoes that were bigger than they should. My mom was going to change them later that day, but I had to survive my first day without any incident. All was good until break, when I decided it would be an excellent idea to play soccer for a while.
Of course it happened. My shoe flew all the way across the yard and fell hard on somebody's head. I was mortified, but luckily nobody else seemed to be paying much attention to it. Until a kid pointed at me and started laughing as loud as he could, screaming for everybody to see what had happened. Now people were staring. And I was about to start crying.
But not even 5 seconds go by when another kid runs straight into the laughing kid, making him fall to the floor... on top of his really dark chocolate milk. He was a mess. Covered from head to toe in milk. And since people were already looking in his direction, everybody laughed at him. Nobody noticed me picking my shoe and then running to the bathroom.
Karma, weird accident, I don't know, but everybody remembered "milk boy" that year.
Image credits: missinguva
#33
I was driving down a remote highway road out in buck-nowhere, Iowa. The road is known for extremely limited vehicle traffic, but a lot of deer. I was going right at the speed limit, extra aware for the deer risk, when a pickup came up right behind me and started tailgating.
It was a no-pass area with lots of hills so the other driver was smart enough not to force his way past me. But he was definitely angry, inching closer and closer to me.
That's when I saw the deer walk into the road about a hundred yards ahead of me. I had enough warning to ease my speed down so I didn't hit the thing. That caused the tailgating driver to flip his lid - he served, honked, and flipped me off as he passed me.
Then he hit the deer full on. Deer went flying. His pickup was totaled.
I did the right thing by calling 911 and sticking around to make sure the rescue services made it to help him out. The guy never looked at me once during our entire wait.
- You Might Also Like: People Who Regret Their Original Plan Of Being Nice And Working Really Hard Share When It Hit Them (25 Tweets)
Image credits: anon
No comments