I

f you are on a skiing holiday and you see angels, do NOT fall backwards and wave your arms to make an angel shape in the snow. They may find it offensive.

Always be politically correct. Especially to angels. Besides, if I could have any job I wanted, I would be the Angel of Karma. Her timing is so tight these days.

This rave review was sparked by a story sent in by reader Dhruv Banerjee. A robber in the US state of Illinois bought a getaway car but failed to pay for it. At the exact moment that he went on a crime spree at the local mall to raise funds, karma arranged for a repossession agent to appear and tow the car away. True story!

Imagine the robber'€™s face as he ran out of the store to see the tow truck zooming off. The report said police caught up with the man walking dejectedly down the road. Had they listened, I bet they would have heard chuckling from the nearest cloud, not to mention the delighted cries of a thousand vindicated sitcom writers.

To me, the Angel of Karma is a superhero without the cape and external underpants.

More proof arrived in a second car-related news report which happened some days later. A Texas woman whose old, broken down car was stolen by a thief with a tow-truck spotted the vehicle in town a month later.

Police helped her take it back, after which her husband found the thief had fixed the drive shaft and paid for new wheels. Victim Shane Peters said he was '€œvery happy'€.

These reports reminded me of a case in Malaysia in which a thief parked his getaway car outside an empty house and broke in. The owners came back and the villain ran away, leaving behind his most valuable possessions: toolbox, keys and car. He returned to ask for them back. The conversation must have gone something like this. THIEF: '€œI'€™m the guy who tried to steal your stuff but ending up giving you all my stuff! Life'€™s funny, right? Ha ha.'€ VICTIMS: [Grim silence] THIEF: '€œMaybe I should just go.'€ [Leaves.] VICTIMS: '€œWoohoo! Let'€™s check out our new wheels!'€

Sometimes Ms. Karma does not go for the big stuff, but works delicately, with the tiniest of nudges. In Hong Kong in the 1990s, Yeung Yu-kit, a 20-year-old mugger, leapt onto a victim to steal her purse.

In the tussle, the thief lost her own purse, dropping it nearly into the victim'€™s bag to be carried away. It was a sort of reverse robbery. I'€™m not quite sure what crime they charged her with. '€œCommitting a grossly ironic act in public'€, perhaps.

What does it all mean? I think irony now rules the world. A friend bought a pair of expensive sunglasses and was warned: '€œKeep them out of direct sunlight.'€ My local authority cancelled Kite Flying Day because '€œhigh winds were forecast'€. Yesterday I bought a pair of scissors and it came in a package that could only be opened by someone who already owned scissors.

At least the Angel of Karma has a sense of humor.
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The writer is a columnist and journalist.