Blaming it all on Karma

I owe Karma a big apology! All last week I was moaning about her (yes she's a woman as no man could possibly be that logical and methodical!) after my camera was stolen when I was returning a camera to someone else that had left theirs on the table.

I was half way home when I realised I'd left my camera on that very same table. I called the place straight away and was told that my camera was nowhere in sight and then when a friend went back a short while later to check first-hand they were told the same thing.

I called back the next day to see if anyone had handed it into lost and found but no joy and I finally accepted that it - and the year and a half of memories trapped inside it - were gone for good. It seemed to me that the expression: 'No good deed goes unpunished' had been invented for this exact eventuality.

I've always been a big proponent of Karma but after that I got most upset with her and I have to admit I was more than a little unkind about her.

But I found out this weekend that even though I was bad-mouthing her all around town she was still working overtime on my behalf and when I found myself in the same place my camera went missing, one week to the day, a complete stranger came up to me and asked me if I'd lost my camera last week.

When I said yes, he turned to his friend, took his car keys and walked out, only to return five minutes later with my camera in hand. It seems he'd seen me use it last week and when I left without it, he picked it up and took it with him in the hopes that he'd bump into me again and be able to return it to me.

A completely selfless act for a total stranger is something very rare in this day and age and my thanks goes out to my good Samaritan ... along with my grovelling apology to Karma.

It's funny how we just accept good that happen to us as every day occurrences but it's only when something seems really unfair and unjust that we turn it round and blame it on Karma. Let's face it, my camera went missing and it was my own fault for not taking care of it properly.

The camera itself was given to me by my friend Mariam, who is still recovering from a hit and run accident five months ago, and for that reason holds a lot of sentimental value to me but at the end of the day, it's just a camera.

It can be replaced and its loss isn't really anything big in the great scheme of things but the very fact that it happened when I was trying to do a good deed of my own is what seemed so unfair about it so I figured it had to be Karma's fault and not mine. Logical? Not very!

Karma is a concept that originates from ancient India and has its roots in Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist philosophies. It's a kind of cosmic version of 'every action has a reaction' - a philosophy we're all familiar with.

Each and everyone of us is responsible for the things that happen to us, the way people treat us and the paths our lives end up taking ... But that's an article for another day.