Karma Tales 3: Instant Karma
In the far west of Germany there’s a custom according to which in the night before the first of may, young men put up festively decorated birch trees in front of their loved one’s house. The girl is supposed to return the favor by giving a cask of beer or a huge paper heart to the boy later on. I’d always dismissed this kind of stuff as rural, supplicating bullshit. Jodie, however, like most any girl, was really into that kind of validation, asking me months before if I would put up a tree for her. Like any self respecting guy, I said no.
The may night, however, is also Walpurgis Night, a night of general mischief, and so it is just as common to steal these trees. So after going out with the boys that night, I thought why not have some fun and maybe surprise my love as well. And indeed, after scouting out the whole neighborhood and avoiding rivaling troops, I found a huge (about 5 m) tree, unfastened it from a house and carried it to Jodie’s home with my bare hands. I felt truly heroic. Unfortunately, this heroic act was bound to create some suffering, and thus karma: Not only was the poor bastard who had cut, decorated, and put up that huge tree in trouble, and his girlfriend presumably badly disappointed. To add insult to injury, Jodie was still living with her ex-boyfriend whom she had finally left for me after he had incidently found out about her betrayal. He now had a huge tree in front of his house to rub the fact in his face day by day.
The fruition of karma didn’t take long: The next day, my beloved new racing bike was stolen; Though Jodie rejoiced at at the tree, the relationship deteriorated quickly, she left me about a month later, and I never got a may heart or a cask of beer.
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