Many people think karma is fungible. They store up a million minor, imposed kindnesses against the day when it will be necessary to screw someone over mercilessly. That's why people are always being nice, feigning interest in your projects, resonating as appropriate to your good or bad news. But I don't think that's how it works. I haven't quite figured out why. It might be a bit like expecting the credit card company to go easy on you because you've just paid off the power bill. They don't seem to care about that.

A friend of mine was complaining about this guy who would keep borrowing small sums and then, instead of paying it back, he would drop off a punnet of strawberries or something "of roughly equal value". Strawberries are great, but sometimes you don't feel like eating them because the phone company is badgering you about your account.

"Yeah, yeah ... I'm sorry I'm a bit late with my payment. Would you care for some strawberries?"